GUARANTEED PRICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1938, Page 3

GUARANTEED PRICE

MR FRASER DEFENDS PRESENT POLICY. COMPENSATORY PRICES DERIDED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, June 22. A defence of the Government’s guaranteed price system together with criticism of the compensatory price proposal put forward by the Opposition was made by the Minister of Education, the Hon P. Fraser, during an address tonight. “Opponents of the Government’s guaranteed price,” Mr Fraser said, “want to use it to stir up the animosity of farmers who have benefited from it. The guaranteed price is opposed by the Opposition and was opposed by the last Government. Indeed, Mr Coates went into astronomical figures to show the enormous cost it was going to be to the country, his figure being in the vicinity of £200,000,000. In fact of actuality that sort of thing is too foolish. The farmers have benefited to an enormous extent.

“The reason why the Government brought forward the guaranteed price was that, owing to the vast fluctuations in the price of primary produce, there was nothing but uncertainty. When prices rose, land speculation became rife and mortgage rates were high. Then prices fell and farmers were so encumbered that many were in danger of having to walk off their land. Then the Government stabilised prices. “One of the most surprising things is the resentment shown at the action of the Government in stating that the surplus of £600,000 in the Dairy Industry Account from the past year’s operations of the guaranteed price system would go back to the dairyfarmers this year. Our opponents are angry, although they had previously complained that we were denying the farmer his rights. They are also angry because we have promised that, if they are so willing, the farmers will have a properly representative tribunal to fix the guaranteed price next year.

“Mr Hamilton speaks with two voices on this matter,” Mr Fraser continued; “He said on one that for years he had acknowledged the justice of the compensated price, but last year at Invercargill he said he had warned farmers against it because it was dangerous in theory and likely to be disastrous in practice.” After briefly explaining the history of the compensatory price proposal, Mr Fraser went on to say that there had so far been no explanation of it, and there was not likely to be any. He was sorry to see that Mr Mulholland, president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, was so anxious to prejudice farmer's against the Government and that reputedly non-poli-tical body was attacking the Government with any weapons, one of which was to get people to go round the country talking about the compensating price, which was nothing more or less than opposition to tariffs. “The fact remains,” Mr Fraser concluded, “that for the first time in the history of this country dairy-farmers have security, an assured income, reduced mortgages, and stabilised rates of interest.”