Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1938. DAIRY PRODUCE PRICES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 August 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1938. DAIRY PRODUCE PRICES.

QN account of the lapse of time and the march of events, the dairy guaranteed price reports 'which were made ; public yesterday by the Minister of Marketing (the Hon W. Nash) are in some measure robbed of interest. The season for which prices were fixed on. the basis of these reports is over and done with, and the basic p'rice that was originally determined has been supplemented by a bonus. What dairy farmers and others interested want to know now, and no doubt will know very shortly, is what prices are to be paid for dairy produce in the season which has just opened. ' Apart from this central aspect, however, last year’s ’reports, as a study of the working operation of the dairy industry, contain a great deal of matter that is of more than ephemeral interest and raise a number of questions \ that will demand practical attention and treatment as time goes on. One of these questions concerns the position of those engaged in the dairy industry in relation to that of those engaged in other branches of production. The report of the Guaranteed Prices Advisory Committee states that some members maintained that if costs have so risen that the payment of a price sufficient to maintain the average efficient farmer and his family in a reasonable state of comfort will create a deficit in the Dairy Industry Account, this is a regrettable but necessary corollary of the guaranteed price scheme, and should not be used as an argument to forqe the price for butterfat below the level indicated by ascertainable data. As against these contentions, the report goes on to state that:— In the opinion of the majority of members, this view would be valid only if it could be assumed that the guaranteed price plan could safely ignore the question of deficits. On the contrary they believe that neither the plan itself nor the stability of the industry, nor a secure state of comfort could be maintained in the yface of cumulative deficits which approached or reached the limit of the country’s capacity to carry. In great part, the contention of the majority in this matter no doubt is unanswerable. An attempt to fix dairy guaranteed prices simply from the standpoint of giving the “average efficient’’ dairy farmer and his family living standards comparable with those of the rest of the community, regardless of what, deficits were .thus created, very probably would result in plunging dairy farmers and the rest of the community into economic disaster. On the other hand, the policy approved by a majority of the committee plainly means making the concession to those engaged in the dairy industry of living standards ‘ comparable with those of the rest of the community subject to an indefinitely extending reservation. It really means conceding to those engaged in the dairy industry living standards comparable with those of the rest of the community provided that standard is made possible by what can be obtained for dairy produce on external and internal markets. At an immediate view, the dairy farmer and his employees will thus be placed at a disadvantage whenever internal costs are rising more than are the prices obtained for dairy produce. Without labouring the point, it may be urged that the necessity is here emphasised of establishing some fair relationship between the returns obtainable in dairy farming and in other branches of production in the Dominion. The whole question of costs and Returns in all branches of production in New Zealand greatly needs to be studied from this standpoint. In an adequately comprehensive view the adjustment of costs; and therefore of returns, is not a question to be determined merely by bargaining between employers and employees. What is really needed is to bring' all sections of the community, in- their dual character as producers and consumers, into a just and equitable economic relationship.

THE SPANISH CONFLICT.

WHILE the Non-Intervention Committee lias slipped once again into the background, it is clear that, the struggle between the troops of the Spanish Government and the insurgent and foreign forces headed by General, Franco has entered upon a critical and possibly concluding phase. Tt has been predicted within the last day or two that the insurgents will make a great effort to avert another winter campaign by attempting to gain a complete victory within the next few weeks. Although the Government forces, are endeavouring gallantly to stave off disaster, their prospects cannot be called promising. In the offensive which has figured in the cablegrams for some days past —a crossing of the River Ebro from the Catalonian borderlands and an attack on the flank of the insurgent forces which are advancing on Valencia, —they have evidently been hampered desperately by lack of aircraft and other equipment. With their river communications destroyed behind them day by day by an enemy enjoying full command of the air, it is remarkable that they have succeeded even in delaying and hindering the drive on Valencia. With the Ebro offensive apparently spent or slowed down, however, another attack has been launched by the southern section of the Government, forces. Tt should very speedily appear whether these brave efforts against an enemy very much better provided and equipped are merely in the nature of desperate forlorn hopes or are capable of serving any larger purpose.