GUARANTEED PRICES FOR 1938-39 SEASON

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22509, 17 September 1938, Page 18

GUARANTEED PRICES FOR 1938-39 SEASON

Increase of Hd Per Lh Announced . By Minister

NET DEFICIT OF £935,000 EXPECTED

Payments Below Those Recommended By Advisory Committee

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, September 16.

Guaranteed prices of 15.88 d per lb of butter-fat for butter 2nd 17.88 d per lb of butter-fat for cbeese were announced in the House of Representatives to-day by the Minister for Marketing (the Hon. W. Nash). The prices are an increase of lid per lb of butter-fat above the price for last year, with the additional payment announced by the Minister in New Plymouth in June.

It is estimated by the Minister that, taking last season's surplus into account, the prices —having: regard to probable market movements overseas in the coming season— will result in .a deficit in the Dairy Industry Account of £935,000, which, according to the Minister, the Government is prepared to carry.

The prices will actually be 14.89 d per lb for "finest" grade butter and 8.42 d per lb for first-grade cheese, which give the above equivalents in net prices per lb of butter-fat to the farmer.

The prices are below those unanimously recommended by the Guaranteed Prices Advisory Committee. In the report of the advisory committee, which wast presented in the House with the Minister's statement on the prices, payments of 163 d per lb of butter-fat for butter and 183 d per lb of butter-fat for cheese were recommended.

The estimated credit in the account for the season just closed, and for which the accounts are now nearly completed, was £600,000, made up of a profit of £565,000 on butter transactions and £35,000 on cheese sales; The estimated debit in the account'for the current season is £ 1,535,000, and the net expected deficit is thus £935,000. On the figures recommended by the advisory committee a deficit of N £ 2,030,000 was estimated on butter and a deficit of £794,000 on cheese.

The Minister, said, in making his announcement, that the recommendations of the advisory committee had not been adopted in their entirety by the Government.

RELATIONSHIP TO MARKET

"KEYSTONE OP POLICY

ABANDONED"

COMMENT OF FARMERS*

PRESIDENT

•The whole of Mr Nash's statement j boiled down means a complete abandonment of - the pretence that the guaranteed price is other than one definitely related to the market price," said Mr W. W. Mulholland, Dominion president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, commenting on the Ministerial statement - on the guaranteed price, a summary of which was read to him by telephone last evening. , He .said: "The argument that the price recommended by the committee would result in an unmanageable, deficit In the Dairy Industry Account is an admission that the Government has no means by which to raise prices above the parity of the markets. "It will be" remembered that the artificial raising of prices. regardless of what overseas prices might be was the keystone of the Labour Party's policy and on that rested the whole of their policy of- raising wages and other expenditure, which reflect themselves as increased costs. The abandonments of the artificial raising of prices leaves the farmer. at the .mercy. of hugely inflated costs."

REWARD OFFEREU} TO FARMERS

Workers Considered Better Off

OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY

UNION

(raCM~: ASSOCIATION TJtLZGKAM.) WELLINGTON, September 10, "There will be considerable disap- ? ointment among members of the arming community that the report of the Guaranteed Price Committee was not adopted by the Government," says, the official statement of the New Zealand Farmers* Union, issued today. "Apart altogether from the question of the actual price, the fact thr.'. the recommendations of a firstclass tribunal have been departed from'will be viewed with regret by farmers—all the more so when the committee was unanimous in its finding. . •:,.'., ~ "The Government's departure from the labour standard of output agreed on by the committee is difficult to understand, particularly in view of the fact that the tribunal had among its members men whose knowledge of the dairy industry was second to none in; New 'Zealand. Comparing the labour reward" offered the dairy farmer with the rewards,offered to the men who handle his produce, it becomes evident that the dairy farmer is expected to work harder for less money than the workers,. whose wages are fixed by the Arbitration Court. "The committee gave the Government a chance to bring the farmer's reward a little nearer the wages of the people referred to, but the Government has preferred not to accept the opportunity. It should be remembered that a good proportion of the increase will go to the farmers' em- . ployees; also that the dairy farmer is himself contributing from last year's surplus at least one-third of the projected increase." ■ i ■ \More considered statements of the opinions of farmers' organisations on the new guaranteed prices, are expected after a meeting of their representatives early next week. . Representatives of the Dairy Board,, the South Island Dairy Association", and the National Dairy Federation; which; weremainly responsible for the nomination of the farmers' representatives.ron the guaranteed prices advisory, commit-. •tee/ware' likely to hold a meeting in >Wellington very shortly to'discuss the Government's announcement.,