WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 December 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PIG EXPORT SUBSIDY. PRIME MINISTER GIVES WAY. (Special to " Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, Dec. 27. The long-sustained importunity ol the pig breeders and the pig exporters, hacked up by iteration and reiteration of their representatives in Parliament, has at last won for them a subsidy from the Government. Time it is a trifle of only C3o.oUO—less than, one third of the " Guarantee the R nitgrowers have extracted from the .Minister of Agriculture—hut it. is to continue for three years and is hound to encourage the followers of every otliei £ ura I industry to demand a State bounty of one kind or another. Tilt

wheat growers and the millers already are comfortably entrenched behind a prohibitive Customs Tariff, which incidentally is bringing retaliation upon the dairy producers and others; the fruit-growers are guaranteed 11s a case for an unlimited shipment, of apples, and now the pig exporters are to re- 1 <cive CHI.0(10 for no better reasons, it seems, than that they have over-pro-duced and have produced the wrong kind of pork. Then why should not the wool producers, the meat producers, the egg producers, the honey producers. and for the matter of that, the workers, who do most ol the producing, receive similar recognition? Surely it is not only those who do their jobs inefficiently that arc to be spoon-fed by the State. That, however, easily might be the interpretation of the

Government’s policy. THE TAXPAYERS’ LOT. The irony of all this, from the unimaginative taxpayers’ point of view, is that out of their pockets comes all the beneficience scattered by the Government. whether through the Customs tariff or through the Treasury. Dear Ilnur and dear bread are the prices they pay that the N'ew Zealand wheat growers and the New Zealand millers may be spared the competition which proverbially is the soul of business and the spur of efficiency. In the case ol apples and in the case of pork they pay twice over. They provide the subsidy for the fruit growers and the pig raisers and then in due course they pay the higher prices following upon lessened local supplies. These are the inevitable results of bounty fed production as it is practised in this country. The position is aggravated by ihe fact that the protected growers and the subsidised pig growers, with much of their incentive toward better production removed, are content to jog along in their old familiar way, counting upon the State doing for them what they ought to be doing lor themselves. When Mr Coates first assumed bis present responsibilities be set bis face •' firmly against this sort of thing,” as he said himself at the time; hut apparently the temptation of expediency has overwhelmed him. THE PRIME MINISTER’S

STATEMENT. The first rumour that the Prime .Minister had (hanged bis mind in regard to this matter was put about at the end of last week, immediately after he had left for his own home by way of Auckland. This morning the Press Association supplies an authorised statement of the Government’s intentions. “ According to a statement made by the Prime Minister,” it runs, ” it is doubtful whether the pork export business could carry on without the assistance of the Government. I lie export season is just starting, and the dairy . fanners will he able to enjoy Christinas better when they know that the Government lias decided to come to the rescue with a three-year subsidy. ; The amount for the first year is estimated at 1:30,001). The details are nol yet finalised, and will he discussed by. the Minister of Agriculture, representatives of the industry and (lie eimlrol

boards. U is the intention of the Government to provide a subsidy covering three tears. For the remaining two the amount will be progressively retimed. Should there be a recovery in prices this will naturally bo taken int > consideration in determining the amount to lie paid. The Government wishes to make it clear that the object is to assist the industry in its first difficult veal's and enable it to overcome those difficulties which at the moment appear to threaten its continued existence.” This statement of the case, at best, must be regarded as a very lame one. THE WHOLE PROBLEM.

T 1 is delightful personality and his obvious desire to please cover for Hr Coates a multitude of administrative eccentricities ; hut his airy fashion of "rantine the dairy farmers a subsidy of £30.000 this year and promising them further assistance in the years to come, in order that they may the hotter enioy their seasonable festivities, really is carrying the role of Father Christmas too far. The Dominion cannot afford just now, either in money or in reputation, to toss about thousands of pounds amour dairy farmers who are drawing big factory cheques and to speculators who with their eyes wide open have Undertaken the risks of the market. There are dairy companies and dairy suppliers who have applied themselves assiduously and intelligently to this branch of their business with entirely satisfactory results to themselves and their customers, and who have not pestered the Government with appeals for assistance. Those are the producers, if any, who should be assisted in placing tlie pork trade upon a sound and enduring footing. To fritter away £30.000 a year, in helping producers who are not earnest in their desire to help themselves along the high load to success, is unjust to the taxpayers and of little abiding advantage to the faint-hearted suppliants.