GUARANTEED PRICE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 49, 13 March 1937, Page 12

GUARANTEED PRICE

Covering Farmers' Costs MR SAVAGE'S VIEWS "The Government liasn't the slightest intention of abandoning its guaranteed price scheme," declared the Primo Minister, the Right Hon. M. J. Savage, when questioned in Auckland on the matter. "I am quite confident that il a refer^ndum were taken on the question am'ong the farmers of New Zealand there would be a five-to-one vote in favour of it." The guaranteed price scheme, he said, had been prepared after a very caref ul study of the position and after consultation with representative farmers, and it had been framed on a basis that would make it a payabk scheme on the average costs of the average farmer. If a man could not be classed as an average farmer, he should not be in the job. The farmer, he said, under the guaranteed price scheme, knew just how much he would get. There were many- other sections of the community who' would like &n equal certainty, The price to be paid next y8ar, said Mr. Savage, would also be arranged after- consultation wdth the farmers5 representatives. For himself, said the Prime Minister. he could see no difference between the eompensatory price, nrged by a section of the producers at the present time, and the guaranteed price; there was a seetion, too, which thought that a higher price could be achieved by a manipulation of the curreney. He was not among those people, he said. The eontrol of currency was important, but it was not the eure of all ills.