THE BUTTERFAT PRICE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 69, 3 May 1946, Page 5

THE BUTTERFAT PRICE

POSITION NEXT SEASON DAIRY INDUSTRY’S CLAIM “The question of the price to be paid for dairy produce for next season, is on that has been discussed at farmer’s meetings in different parts of the country, particularly since legislation was passed making the 40 : hour week universal throughout the country,” said Mr A. Linton Acting-Chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, at the East Coast Ward Conference at Whakatane last Wednesday. “Farmers have realised only too well,” he said, “that one of the effects of this legislation is to widen still further the gap between what the country can offer, in comparison

with the greater attractions of the high wages and 40-hour week of the ■cities. They think that this should be taken into consideration when the price is fixed for next season, ■ and that farmers should be recompensed in some way, through their price for the longer hours worked on the farm. Just how effect can best be given this, is a matter re-

quiring a lot of careful thought. It is obviously impossible to work a • 40-hour week qn dairy farms, but in our price we can receive something • extra to compensate us for the additional hours which have to be worked on dairy farms. If this is done it would help attract labour to the farms, and would allow us to retain employees who would otherwise be attracted away where • shorter hours and higher wages are offering. *

Greater Security Soughti

“I am glad to say that one of the first things that the dairy section of the recently-constituted Federated Farmers’ did, was to get in touch with the Board and the Dairy Industry Council with a view to • discussing this—and other problems affecting the interests of dairy farm--ers. The executive of the dairy section met the Dairy Industry Council some little time ago, and we jointly decided that for next season our objective should be to secure for our people, the standards as set out by •the 1938 guaranteed price advisory committee, but later altered by Mr Nash. If you remember, after those ; standards were fixed, Mr Nash reduced them by .87d per lb. butteriat. The industry has always laboured under a genuine sense of grievance over that unwarranted reduction, but during the war years, with a view to securing the greatest possible output for Britain 'and putting aside all questions that were in dispute between the Government and ourselves, we agreed that for the period of the war we would not press our claim in connection with the standards. However we feel now that the war .is over that there is no longer any reason whatever for iforegoing anything from standards that were unanimously fixed by a -committee of very able men representing both the industry and the Government. The Board will therefore be pressing this claim, when the price for next season cames up for review shortly. t Offsetting Forty-hour Week

“In our joint discussions with the Federated Farmers’ dairy section we als6 agreed that we should ask for something that would help offset the added advantages recently given • city industries through the introduction of the universal 40-hoUb week. Just how we will approach this question will be a matter for discussion, but I am sure you will all agree that our industry has been placed in a much less advantageous position as a result of this latest legislation, and that some monetary . stimulus is required to overcome our present disadvantages.”