GUARANTEED PRICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1938, Page 5

GUARANTEED PRICE

THE ANTICIPATED INCREASE KEEN INTEREST IN AUCKLAND. COUNTER TO ADDED COSTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, August 29. Estimated to represent an additional distribution of between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000, the expectation that the unanimous recommendation of the Guaranteed Price Committee will be an increase of 2d a lb in payment for butter exported this season is applauded by executives in the dairying industry. Although loth to comment until the committee’s report is released by the Minister of Marketing, the Hon W. Nash, authorities expressed the opinion that an advance of 2d on last season’s price would be a substantial counter to the added costs faced by the industry. The actual . announcement of the committee’s recommendations is keenly awaited by the industry. It is generally asserted that this is the first occasion on which comprehensive evidence on the precise nature of increased costs has been presented and the manner in which the problem had been approached by the committee was commended by several authorities. Commenting upon the predicted recommendation of an increase of 2d in the payment for butter, one man said the committee must have performed excellent work in interpreting the facts and figures that had been advanced. Until details of the recommendations are known, Waikato dairy executives find it difficult to make any comparisons, but it was generally stated that an increase of 2d in the payment would give farmers more satisfaction than they had obtained from past prices. It is understood that when the new payment is officially announced, the question will be fully discussed by the South Auckland Dairy Association. “An increase of 2d would, I presume, bring the price up to about Is 3Jd, and as this would enable most factories to pay out approximately is 5d for butterfat, it would be regarded as satisfactory by the majority of farmers,” one man said. “It should serve to counter-balance any rise in costs which were so thoroughly analysed for the committee’s benefit.” In another quarter the opinion was expressed that the whole question was bound up in the labour problem, and it would take time to appreciate the implications. If 40001 b of butterfat was adopted as a labour unit, as compared with the present 60001 b basis, it would mean that a farmer would be obliged to share a considerable proportion of the price increase of 2d with his labour. It was added that many factors prevented an accurate estimate of the amount involved in an advance of 2d. However, assuming that last year’s production was maintained and that there was a proportionate increase in the cheese price, farmers would doubtless obtain an extra £2,000,000 or £3,000,000 under these conditions.