DAIRY PRICES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1938, Page 9

DAIRY PRICES

WAIRARAPA REMITS BEFORE CONFERENCE THE PROBLEM OF BALANCE WITH COSTS PROPOSED SOLUTIONS DISCUSSED (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A discussion on the guaranteed price was initiated at the Interprovincial Conference of the Farmers’ Union, shortly after the Prime Minister’s address. The following remit was submitted by the Gladstone branch: — That in fixing a guaranteed price for butterfat, the case for the producer should be adequately presented in public hearing before a tribunal presided over by a judge of the Supreme Court. Moving this, Mr A. Ross (Masterton), said the conference had had the assurance of the Prime Minister that the farmers could have a tribunal. “He told us to be very sure that we were not making a mistake,” Mr Ross added. “We want to have some say in a matter like this, which so vitally affects us.” Mr N. Campbell (Palmerston North), seconding the remit, said the whole of the dairy industry had asked for a tribunal.

An amendment deleting the word "guaranteed” was moved by Mr G. J. Wilde (Palmerston North), who said that at the present time they were not altogether in agreement with the guaranteed price and had as a Union platform the compensatory price. Further consideration of the subject was deferred till a later stage to enable another resolution to be framed. “The recent slump was much more intense that it need have been because the primary producer at that time, was not getting a compensatory price,” said Mr W. J. Thomas (Carterton), moving the following remit: — “That until the purchasing power of the New Zealand £ is equal to the purchasing power of the £ sterling in their respective countries, the handicap at present imposed on the primary producer can best be adjusted by means of exchange, which shall be sufficient to adjust the disparity in the cost of New Zealand goods and services, compared with the United Kingdom; the compensatory adjustment to be made simultaneously in the duties imposed on imports; provision also being made for no increase in exchange on moneys transferred to the United Kingdom for Government and local-body debt services.”

Mr Thomas said the farmers for 25 years had fought the question of keeping costs down. Reduction of costs meant, according to one suggested method, an overhaul possibly of the 40-hour week, and an overhaul and lowering of the wage level and tariffs. A subsidy by taxation was another suggested way in which the disability could be overcome. But that in turn created further costs. The farmers’ disability could not be met by further taxation. A third suggested method was the issue of credit by the Reserve Bank, and he was not going to advocate that. The fourth method of adjustment was by means of exchange to meet the disparity in the cost of New Zealand goods and services. Further discussion on this remit also was deferred.