MR. WALSH REPLIES

Chronicle (Levin), 23 August 1949, Page 5

MR. WALSH REPLIES

Ph'ess Association)

Must Keep Butter Ra tion

(Per

• ■ 'WELLINGTON , August 22. "It is incredible that two men prominent.in public life, can liave the effrontery' to advocate the tfansfer of souie 14,000 tons of butter within New Zealand from the children and needy to the hands of tlie wealtliy. " \ This was stated today by* the chairman of the Aid for Britain nationa! council, Mr, F. P. Walsh, when commenting on a suggestion by the New Zealand Dairy Conference that butter rationing should be abolished aud the Government subsidy be. witlidrawn/ The conference, said Mr. -Walsh, had been stampeded into passing a renfit which it would seem had been fostered by the chairman of the Dairy Board, Mr. W. E. Hale, and vice-presidebt, Mr. A. Linton. Tlie essence of the argument advanced by Mr. Hale and Mh Linton, said Mr. Walsh, was that because of alleged rationing abuses, it •would be better to lift rationing and allow the price to go up. The price, it .was elaimed, would i'ation saies and Mr. "Hale firmly believed there would not be less butter for export. Mr. Walsh said that at 2s 6d a pound big families would ration buttei' as would pensioners and others. It might be true that New Zealand could still send as much to Britain "but I don't think 'the British people would accept it," said Mr. Walsh, who added that they would be the first to react to the "rank injustice of Mr. Linton 's scheme for keeping up their butter ration by taking it from tlie poor and needy aud transferring it to the rich and greedy. ' ' "The present rationing policy is criticised as conflieting with this country ;s long-term interests," said Mr. Walsh. "Let us take a look at the proposed policy of 'no rationing and no sufysidy.' Britain is at present paying a subsidy of Is 3d a pound to enable her to retail our butter at ls tid a pound. If this subsidy, too, were re* moved (and why not if Mr. Linton 's analysis is true?), our butter would cost the British consumer 2s 9d a pound. Even at ls 6d eertain poo'rer areas .have already found their alloca- ' tion of 'butter unlifted in face of com petition from marcarine at 9rl. At,

2s 9d our butter would relatively be unsaleable in large areas of Britain.It is tin;e our dairy industry leaders discovered that the world has developed • , a low-cost butter substitute; that a generation of consumers in Britain and other lands has, because of war shortages, been eating cheap margarine and liking it and furthei'more doing well on it. In the United Btates and in Canada, too, consumer resistance has brought butter prices down rapidly all this year and their Governments have for some time been buying heavily at support prices to prevent the iarmer being badly left with unsaleable butter on his hands. Cbviously il r. Hale and Mr. Linton have badly misjudged our Dominion long-term interests. If their new policy of allowing butter prices to fmd their 'proper' level were followed today — overseas as well as bere — these two gentlemen and their - wealtliy i f riends would quickly fmd they ha'd enough butter and to spare in this country. They could wallow in it or feed it to their pigs. The only thing they couldn't do with it would be to eell it. " It was to be hoped that more soberminded farmers in less exalted positions, would see just how far that policy would lead them, concluded Mr. Walsh. He was more hopeful of that when he read the coinment of one deiegate to the dairy conference that "rationing was difficult to administer but that was no reason why New Zealand should fall down on its major responsibility to supply Britain to the maximum."- The Dominion 's longterm and short-term interests lay with Britain and with 97 per cent of their 1 export going to that one market, dairy producers should be the very last to forget that, ' ' said Mr. Walsh.