"FARMERS DUPED"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 135, 24 June 1937, Page 10

"FARMERS DUPED"

— PresB ABBOciation.)

i. ■ i.T. « ii » Guaranteed Price Plan Criticised "INGENIOUS MOVE"

(By Telegraph

PALMERSTON N„ This Day. .The Labour Party'a attitude to the farming community was touChed upon by Mr. O. C. Mazciigarb, of Wellington, when speaking at Bulls last evening, in the interests of the National Party. !He declared that the guaranteed price schemo was now regarded by the farmer as a political take-down and a pre* liminary to State ownership of the agricultural industry. The biggest of all surprises at the last general election sprang from tho fact that so many farmer s voLed for Labour. Hitherto the country districtfl had been the Dominion's buiwarks against socialism. The Labour Party realised that it was the country electorates which kept it from attaining power and so the lines wefe cast to secure the farmer 's vote by extending sympathy to him and by asBuring him of a higher livlng standard which would be unaffected by market fluctuations. The term 4 guaranteed prices' was ingeniously designed to convey a comforting assurance and to eliminate the dread of State ownership and control. Thus the votes of the farmers were' won. But in little more than a year they ( find themselves sadly disillusioned and the victims of clever political tactics, said the speaker. It did look for a time as if the guaranteed price for butter was in excess of the world price. The present indications, however, arO that the farmer has received scarcely more than the net amount obtainOd by the Government on sale. But while Government intervention has given him hardly more than he would have received for his butter on a free market,. the farmer flnds that his Costs have gone up- by 2d per lb. butterfat, or about £2 per Cow. The cheese prodiicer is in a much worse position. The adtual pay-out for cheese is about 4s t© 5s per ewt. less than the market return. This meatis that the Government is making a profit of about £4 to £5 a ton on approximately 90,000 tons of . cheese and at the same time has increased the farm and factory costs of the cheese supplier by about 3d per lb. Is it any wonder that farmers now regard the guaranteed price as a political and merely a euphemism for State confiscation of farm produce at "whatever price the Government chooses to fix? Mr, Mazengarb asked.

The shallow insincerity of it all has recently been revealed by Mr. O, Morgan Williams, Labour M.P. for Kaiapoi, in a considered magazine article published under the title, What can be done for the Small Farmer?' In this article, Labour 's representative argues and urges the ease for State farms as a moana 4to wean the farmer from his individualism.' He opens his article with delightful candour by 6a«ing: 1 4 Many of my friends say to me: 4 The Government is doing a great deal for the wage-earner, for the unemployed, and for many business people, but it is not doing much for tho small farmer except to make his life harder.' My reply is, 4What can be done for the small farmer? Whai can be done for the village blacksmith, the' saddle r, the chaff-cutter, and all those people who are left behind in tho march of time ? ' " The farmeps of New Zealand may resent the implication that they have fallen behind the times, but they will surely agree with the member for Kaiapoi when he proceeds to admit the real effect of his party 's recent industrial legislation in these words: 4I have no doubt that the improvements in wages and conditions, not only on the farms, but also in industry generally, have made it impossible for many small farmers to employ labour and have had ■the effect in many instances of driving the farmers* wives and children into the cowshed. ' Probably the farmers, have no doubt about this either, said Mr. Mazengarb. Shortly after the election the Prime Minister and other members of his Cabinet, in order to allay the fears of the anti-socialists, took unto themselves a cloak of liberalism and proudly proclaimed that they would begin where Seddon left off. But Mr. Morgan Williams, M.P., had blown the gaff by stating: 'From tho point of viow of political sfcrategy, it was a great blunder on the part of the Seddon Liberals lo settle thousands of work6fS on the land as individual farmers. . , , Eeonomic and social forces combined have doomed the small farmer to gradual extinction. ' Manufacturers and other producers may possiblv seek consolation in the hope that, while the Labour Party is planning to tevr down boundary fences and eliminate homesteads as a necessary preliminary to large-scale cooperativo farming on tho Russian model, they will be left alone. But Kaiapoi 's. M.P. deprives them of even that hope by his prediction that 'the farmer in New Zealand, as elsewhere, will remain to the end an apponent of socialism and the last pillar of private enterprise. ' Cottage builders and nien engaged m motor transport had already received their running shoes. The idea of licensing chemists, fruiterors, petrol sellers, etc., as a flrst step to 'State shops' proceeds apace. Mr. Savage stated after the election that the country had nothing to fear. Was this true to-day? Who was safe from the socialist? The ope grain of cornfort for tho farmer was that he will be the last to go. The Aeting-Primo Minister may reprimand his colleague for this premature revelation that tho Government is working with the skids on for complete socialisation in this generation, but lovers of freedom and those who hate the idea of regimentation will tliank Ihe Labour M.P. for Kaiapoi for his engaging frankness.