THE TRUTH OF BUTTER

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 6, 2 October 1920, Page 8

THE TRUTH OF BUTTER

PRIVILEGED NEW ZEALAND

A WORD ABOUT "ARISTOCRATS"

THE REAL "WORKING CLASS"

Article No, 11. (Published by Arrangement.)

"They also servo who only stand and wait," a classic author wrote centuries ago Away in the backblocks, far from the pleasures and the various comforts and amenities of town life, thousands of dnirv farmers, their wives, and their sons nnd daughters have 6trcnuouslv served the public. They hnvo waited for a fair compensation for tho serving—in which real self-sacrifice 6hines for all to see— and they have been served with such abuse as tho woret loafers and shirkers ill the community do not get. They are tlie, last- of all suppliers of tho necessarily. of life to ask. for a fair return for their heavy labour, and, because they are the last, they do not get tlie people's gratitude for their willingness during, the past four or five years to accept prices below the veal market value of their produce. If they had a tenth of tho selfishness now charged against them ]>y hasty critics, they would have insisted long ago on a byttcr reward for .their, industry from which flie whole community has ■ substantially benefited. But they have waited while tho suppliers of other commodities—necessary and unnecessary have been served with higher and higher prices; and now, because the 'utter producers are the last to ask for justice, they are met by -the cumulative effect of the people's resentment of all other increases of prices. By a queer irony of fate, the butter producers are not praised for their patient postponeme'.t of their claim for a fail 1 deal, but they are denounced as if they had been respr-r.sible for all factors of cost of living. Surely if the people take thought they will recognise that the feeling which has been 6tirred up against the hard-working dairv farmers—who are not mighty magnates of tlio land—ia the reverse of. rea-' sonable. Not an "Aristocracy."

Wh'; are the dairy farmers? Are they a hereditary "aristocracy" of the land? Are they spoilt children of fortune lolling in tlie lap of luxury? It is a fact beyond dispute that no men have a better claim to the term "working class" than thousands of the dairy fanners, their wives and their sons and daughters. The dairy farmer cannot enjoy tho privilege of "going 6low" or striking. All days are one day to the cow and to her master (rather, her servant). The calendar has one line, the same line, tho line of work, every day for the dairyman. All weathers are one weather for hint—outside weather. The hands'of the clock push him out of bed in the dark of winter aiid at break of day in summer; and out he must go, whatever the weather. In the towns men are ever trying to shorten the hours of work, but the cow is president of the Arbitration Court on the back-blocks, and slio gives no heed to any argument against an early start for the long day's toil. The cow has been much educated by friendly man, but she remains a child of Nature, and goes Nature's way, whrtever man may do in his debating halls and Parliaments.

Work! The average manV'hard work" is recreation by comparison with' tha dreary drudgery of many a dairy farm. Only the man who is not afraid of solid, hard work has any hope of survival on a dairy farm. Much of the best of Netf Zealand's brawn is on the dairy farms to-day If the brain of those men—recruited from various ranks of workers • -had been proportionate to the brawn, thqv would not be fighting so hard for bare justice to-day. They would hava managed to get a better reward long ago. r The Public's Short Memory. Let the people of New Zealand search' back in their memories and find some of the words tapped in by the pens of various writere. Have the people forgotten the campaign about "child slaves of the dairy"? It was alleged that butter producers and their wives "sweated" their children. The dairy farmers were held up as inhuman taskmasters of their children. 1 Tho truth is that dairy farmers are just as human as other peopla of the same race—the British race. Tho truth is that dairy farmers probably work harder than other folks to assure tho future of their children. Somo critics did not accuse the dairy farmers of deliberate cruelty, but declared that tho parents were driven by their mortgage obligations to take a heavy toll of labour from children; Unquestionably, tho price of much of the dairying land' ten' years ago was enough t9 tax tha full working strength of a dairy farmer's family. Tho evidence of that fact is on record in newspaper files. _ If • tho price of land made such difficulties for..;q many dairy farmers a, decade ago, what kind of a struggle must some thousands lx> having who went into the industry after the price of land had been doubled or trebled, and after other costs had been doubled or trebled? din. the life of men ;so • situated bo described as a picnic? How i maiv people, protesting now against tho granting of justice fo tho dairy farmers, i would like to change nlaces with somo of them? If tho people look back a few I years, they must admit that tho most sweated class in the community has been tlmt of the small dairy farmer—and tho adjective "small" applies to the great majority of them. Privileged New Zealand. When tho butter producer is allowed to sneak amid the din which assails him on 1 all sides, ho would probably life to ask a plain question such as this: ""Why do the people of New Zealand expect to be nrivileged above all other of tho Britisli Empire in regard to butter?" It is believed, on good evidence, that tho average of spending power is greater in New Zealand than in any other country of tho Empire, and yet New Zealand peopl" expect that by a kind of "Divine right" they should be specially privileged in regard to butter, and should not pay the world's market price. Here are the recent retail prices paid by the consuming public in various parts of tho British Empire:— England— Per lb. Imported 3s. Od. Home make* is. 6d. Cnnada* ss. Od. Western Australia 2s. lOd. • rictorii\ 2s. lfld. Queensland 2s, lfld. New South Wales 25,-lfld. New Zealand Is. od. ''Summer prices. [The price of. 3s. for imported butter in England as against 4s. Gd. for horns make, is due to the fact that tlio pries of tho imported articlo is controlled.! ■ Ts Now South Wales less democratio than Now Zealand ? Is Queensland less democratic? ■ Is Western Australia less democratic f ■ Labour Governments are in power in those countries; but the local price of butter is on a parity with tha export value. Tha principle of fair play ,for tho butter producer has been recognised in those oovuitrics. _ Why should it not bo similarly recognised jn New Zealand? Why have injustice in New Zealand while justice_ is given in all other parts of the jihnpire? TThe third advertisement in this eerlcf will appear in Monday's issue.]