THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1943 FARMERS’ COSTS & PRICES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3268, 26 May 1943, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1943 FARMERS’ COSTS & PRICES

Recognising the need for stability in prices, costs and wages, the New Zealand dairy Board faced a difficult problem when it discussed the guaranteed price for dairy produce at its conference at Wellington. It arrived at a decision to support the stabilisation scheme if the costs of dairy farmers were reduced to the 1938 level. In reality the conference has done little more than clarify its official attitude, because ways and means have yet to be found of reducing costs of .production to the level of five years ago. The farmers in general have no wish to upset the effort to attain a basis of industrial stabilisation. Their complaint is that while other sections of the community have received compensation in the form of higher income for increased costs in the war years, the farmers have been squeezed between fixed ceiling prices and a rising tide of costs.

The conference apparently made no recommendation regarding the method of adjusting the difference. There is little doubt that it will be found that the difference between the costs of 1943 and of 1938 is substantial. In total it may amount to millions of pounds. Where is the money to come from ? If the suggestion of the conference is adopted—that costs be reduced to the 1938 level—is there any effective method apart from subsidy or taxation relief. The increased costs are incurred through advances in the prices of everything the farmer has to buy in the operation of his industry and through increased taxation. By what method are prices to be reduced? Taxation might be remitted or subsidies might be employed to equalise costs, but it is obvious that unless the prices paid for produce by the British Government are adjusted the people of New Zealand as a whole will have to bear the cost. It would have been far better, with the guaranteed price scheme in operation, had the original formula been maintained. If reasonable allowance had been made for costs as they were advancing the drift of the dairy farmers away from the common experience of the community would not have progressed so far. The whole trouble arose through an unfortunate attempt arbitrarily to fix the income which the farmer deserved to receive, followed by failure to face the facts as they arose. The future matters more than the past, however. It is in the interests of the United Nations as well as of New Zealand that the dairy producers should receive an income sufficient to ensure that the production of vital foodstuffs is maintained and if possible increased. The Minister of .Agriculture has expressed his willingness to discuss the matter with the producers and the sooner a satisfactory settlement is reached the better it will be for the Dominions wartime production.