Fixing of Butter Prices.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 222, 31 October 1916, Page 1

Fixing of Butter Prices.

[TO THE EDITOR.] Sir, —I wish to explain, more fully than has yet been dene, the grounds upon which the Farmers' Union is raising a strong protest against the action of the Government in imposing an export tax on butter fat. We base our case principally upon the following grounds Firstly, it is taxation without the consent of Parliament. Secondly, it is imposed not for the public benefit, but for the benefit of the local consumers of butter, who have clearly no more right to cheap butter than have the people of the United Kingdom who purchase the remainder, and thirdly, it is a pernicious principle, which if gonerally agreed to and fully carried out, will leave no protection for any part of the community which happens to be in a minority. We in New Zealand have established a system under which, with every increase in the cost of living, the rate of wages is correspondingly

increased and this system has been fully taken advantage of right up to date. Thus the recognised remedy for the injustice has already been applied and the action now taken can only have the effect of creating an injustice in another direction. The " man in the street " generally supports the scheme. He uses butter and he thinks that the dairyman can well afford to take less for his local sales seeing the high price he obtains for his export sales. That in short he is rich enough to stand the loss. Setting aside the fact that this argument, if sound, would justify the robbing of a good many other people besides the dairyman, we must not forget that it is by no means certain he is reaping such a phenomenal harvest. His gross returns are higher than he ever dreamed of, but so also are his expenses. Practically everything that he requires has gone up enormously in price. The fertiliser that he must use to maintain the fertility of his soil costs about double, and the same may be said of any labour which he may hire and I venture to say that very few of those who disclaim against his exorbitant returns would change place 3 with the average dairyman and do the work he does for the reward he receives.

It is true that the amount of money involved at present is not a very grave matter and may not be seriously felt, but the gravity of the situation lies in the fact that it is a start on a system of robbery of one section of the community for the benefit of another, and that it has been extorted from the Government by a distinct threat from a part of the section benefitted. If such things can be perpetrated on a small scale, they may be perpetrated on a much larger scale, and with disastrous effects, if the general public do not, ere it is too late, become alive to the dangers of the situation.—l am, etc., A. A. ROSS, Provincial President, New Zealand Farmers' Union. 27th October, 1916.