"IMMEDIATE POLICY OF SOCIALISM"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 201, 10 September 1937, Page 6

"IMMEDIATE POLICY OF SOCIALISM"

-Press Association J

Mr Nash Leaves No Doubt, Says Mr Polson THE £5 10/- A WEEK BASIS

(By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, This i»ay. Commenting on the Hon. Walter Nash's statement on costs that were taken into account in the fixing of the dairy price guarantee, Mr W. J. Polson said: "Mr Nash has left no doubt in anyone's mind to-day regarding the policy of the Government in respect of the dairy-farmer. It is an immediate policy of Socialism. Five pounds ten shillings a week is to be tbe value of an efficient farmer 's Teward, from which he must deduct 30 shillings for his house and farm produce consumed by himself and family. "The fa^mer," Mr Polson added, "is a skilled worker employing capital in addition to his skill and experi'ence. Mr Nash's statement to-day provides nothing for his capital management or for the hours he works. He is to receive what a worker in industry gets— no more, no less. "Mr Nash justifies the guaranteed price by the5 publication of some figures which do not agree with either the figures carefully compiled and published

by the Farmers' Union or the New Zealand Co-op. Dairy Co., Ltd. On what Mr Polson asks, "are these . figures based? One is entitled to aslc not for extracts from a report which may be a majority or a minority report, but. for the publication of the whole report or /eports without excision. . "If an ordinary skilled worker is to receive 2/9 an hour and a watersider 2/8„ with no interest in the results of their labour, the farmer, workng somedmes double the hours, under all weather ciu>ditions and without many of the amenities of town life, risking the gamble of the seasons as well as capital, is entitled to a better deal. "What has become of the proinise to measure the farmer 's work no the same yardstiek as that of other sections of the ' community? "The worst feature of the new arrangement is that many struggling farmers will give up hope," Mr Polson concludes. "Why submit to such conditions wlien the ivatersider, with no responsibilities, can earn a similar reward? Small farmers constitute the Ma-jority of thoSe engaged in the industry, but the large farmers who employ | labour to any extent will be even more j seriously affected by the rising ticle of j costs only beginning."