GUARANTEED PRICE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 153, 16 July 1937, Page 11

GUARANTEED PRICE

— Press Association.)

Farmers Want to Have More Say TRIBUNAL SUGGESTED

(By Telegraph

WELLINGTON, Last Niglit. j A motion that a tribunal presided' over by a Supreme Court Judge, holdingoffice for eight or ten years, should eompute the priee of dairy produce, was: carried by the conference of the Farmers' Union to-night. It ia pro-; posed the tribunal be appointed by a committee consisting of equal numbers of members .uominated by the dairy industry and the Government, that the price should be determined on the evidence accepted by the Government anct; that the proceedings and findings of the tribunal be treated as those of the Arbitration Court are. "It is most unfair that the Government, who are the sole buyers of produce, should nominate the committee who are even to adviso it," said Mr. D. B. Higgins (Auckland), who moved the motion. "The committee, while; they may claim to be farmers, are not' representatives of the farmers. We did' not elect them and have no say at all.; We feel in future we should have a ri'ght to elect an equal number of members. We do not mind who the' Government elect 30 long as we have, that right. Even if we gct a compensated price we shall have to have a: icommittee. " The following Temits also were car-' ried: — * 4 That this conference calls the attention of the Government to the increas-. ing mountain of costs primary indus-: tries are being ealled upon to bear with; 110 opportunity of passing these costs] on to eonsumers as is possible in every, other department of industry and commerce, and expresses tho emphatic! opinion that a substantial addition to| the price for butterfat and cheese fori the current season is essential if the" farmers' standard of living is not to be reduced further and the productive' capacity of fanns jeopardised." . : * ' That this conference opposes thei recent action of the Internal Market-; ing Department in increasing the retail; price of bacon by 3d per lb. without - any corresponding increase in the price ' to the producer. ' ' ; Among somo of the xemits touching' the Government's land administration' adopted by the conference was one. ,urging the Government to investigate' jits undeveloped and deteriorated lands(With a. vievr to making the lands re-jvenue-producing under practical super-' jvision. Asserting that the Govern-; jment's policy to deteiiorated lands was ."outrageous," Mr. W. J. Polson said ,that, when times were good, the Government would farm land, and when they, were bad, someone else would. It was :time the whole subject was investigated. ! Mr. H. Hunt (North Taranaki) said ;som6 counties were almost bankrupt Jthrough loss of rates on deteriorated" jland that had reverted to the Crown. | A plank that the Government faeili-, •tate the taking up of land by suitable; isettlers with small amounts of capital; iwas added to the policy of ,tho New■Zealand Farmers' Union. A remit from the combined conference at Dannevirke asking the Govern--ment to« bring down a policy of closer. ;settlement was not approved. Follow-: ling a discussion, the president said; ithat, if they either passed the remit or: •rejected it, they 'would give a wrongi limpression. He suggested its with-i j'drawal, and this was agrped to. i j A motion that the system of land] valuation be'so amended as to give a» more equitable system of arriving atj the unimproved value for land tax, senti to the conference as a remit from North' • Taranaki, .Was adopted^ _ ;'