SALE OF EGGS

Southland Times, Issue 24840, 4 September 1942, Page 2

SALE OF EGGS

Sir, —I would like to remind Mr .A. L. Adamson that ! am still awaiting his reply to my inquiry. It was four weeks on September 1 since Mr Adamson, during his talk for “the man on the land,” quoted from an official circular of. the National Council .of Primary Production a guaranteed price for eggs, but retailers still continue to purchase eggs .at a lower ’price. As neither Mr Aaamson nor the council have yet been able to explain their statements, their value to the farming community is very doubtful, especially when it is remembered that farmers’ goods are perishable. These talks would serve the farming community much better if they were based on facts instead of quotations from circulars. The Hon. W. J. Polson, Minister of Primary Production for War Purposes, also made a radio appeal to farmers, urging them to produce more and more grain, vegetables, eggs and so on, and said that it would be quite safe fop them to go ahead this time as the Primary Production Council had fixed a minimum price for all farmers’ produce from onions to eggs. Yet, when I asked two simple questions—namely, if the council stated a date when the guaranteed price for eggs was to commenace and if there is a law to enforce all prices set by the council—they could not provide answers. Mr Polson also writes at some length in The Straight Furrow, official organ of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, making a special appeal to country women to double their poultry production. When touching on the last breakdown in the guaranteed price system he mildly puts it as “discouraging,” but does not mention the monetary loss to the producer. C. J. CALDER,