Producers Want Subsidy On Skins Removed

Chronicle (Levin), 15 September 1948, Page 5

Producers Want Subsidy On Skins Removed

WELLINGTON, Sept. 15. Representations that- the producer be given fu'll realisations from the sale of hides, pelts, calf skins and tallow are made-by Mr. W. N. Perry, Dominion president of Federated Farmers, in a letter sent to the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser. The letter stated: "The federation has received numerous requests from all parts of New Zealand that it place'very strongly before the Prime Minister the great need for rectifying the unfair position which obtains m regard to subsidising by the farmers of consumers in New Zealand as far as hides, pelts, calf skins and tal'low are concemed." It added that the alteration in the exchange rate meant an increase in the incomes of most consumers in the Dominion, whereas producers had had their. incomes reduced. Last year the subsidy to local consumers was £1,250,000 on tallow, £1,000,000 on hides, £320,000 on bobby calf skins and £186,000 on pelts. "In view of the fact that the general public of New Zealand have had their real incomes increased by many times this amount, and that sheep-farmers of the Dominion have received a direct cut in their income of at least £7,500,000 it is manifestly unfair that this process of subsidisation should be allowed to continue," the letter concludes.