Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, JUNE 27, 1938. AN ISSUE UNRESOLVED.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 June 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, JUNE 27, 1938. AN ISSUE UNRESOLVED.

a good deal of talk the proposal to appoint a tribunal, presided over by a Supreme Court judge, to determine the guaranteed price to be paid for dairy produce has been dropped. The responsibility of fixing the price is to remain with the Government. The National Dairy Conference which has just concluded proposed, however, that an advisory body be appointed to make representations to the Government as to prices. This proposal the Prime Minister has indicated the Government is not inclined to adopt. Throughout the extended discussions which came to a head in New Plymouth last week surprisingly little appears to have been said about what might be regarded as the crucial issue at stake —that of the basis on which guaranteed prices for dairy produce are to be determined as time goes on. The position holds two broad possibilities. One of these is that dairy farmers should get “all that is in the industry” (as a member of the present Government put it some time ago), but nothing more than that. The other is that the dairy farmer should be compensated by some method for any disproportionate rise in the internal costs he has to meet in relation to the prices he obtains for his produce in oversea markets. In his latest statement on the subject of the guaranteed price policy, the Prime Minister is reported to have said in part: They talk about compensated prices, but. there is nothing that can be left out of account finder the system we are operating today. Costs and’'everything else relating to life on dairy farms have to be considered, and will be considered, before we can intelligently fix the price. We want all the representative evidence we can get that the dairy farmers can offer. This seems to imply that the price to be paid out to dairy farmers is not necessarily to be governed by what is obtained from the sale of produce. It has not been stated in plain terms, however, whether* the Government is, or is not, proposing to subsidise dairy production if those engaged in the industry are shown to be burdened and penalised unfairly by the increase of internal costs. A great deal obviously would be done to clarify the total position if this vital point were settled. The difficulties to be overcome in subsidising the dairy industry to offset rising internal costs are very great, if not insuperable. On the other hand, in the extent to which their position is prejudiced by a disproportionate increase in internal costs, those engaged in the industry have an undoubted grievance and one that would become acute should there be any appreciable fall in prices. Sooner or later these commanding aspects of the situation will have to be faced and dealt with in some fashion. The ruling disposition at present, however, seems to be to push them into the background and hope for the best.