DAIRY PRICES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 September 1938, Page 5

DAIRY PRICES

HON. A. HAMILTON’S COMMENT FARMER LEFT TO CARRY BURDEN NATIONAL PARTY POLICY (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “The Government is hoist with its own petard," said the Leader of the Opposition, the Hen Adam Hamilton, in a statement issued last evening concerning the guaranteed prices for the current season which were announced in the House of Representatives yesterday by the Minister of Marketing, the Hon W. Nash. “If the position were not so serious it would be almost ludicrous,” Mr Hamilton said. "The Government produced its Socialistic commandeer scheme with assurances of benevolent treatment for the dairy-farmers and, in spite of warning notes sounded at the time, went blindly ahead in tne belief that it could ignore world market conditions. "Now the Minister of Marketing has admitted that world parity must be regarded as a determining factor. He has had to choose between a large deficit in the Dairy Industry Account and innumerable deficits in the accounts of dairy-farmers, arising from the high costs policy which his Government has deliberately pursued. In spite of all the flowery verbiage which the Minister , puts into the Primary Products Marketing Act, the farmer is being left to carry the burden. AN ARBITRARY REDUCTION “Farmers may well feel amazed at the Minister’s statement. An advisory committee was appointed some time ago, representing both the Government and the dairy industry, and its unanimous recommendation was that the basic guaranteed prices should be 15.605 d a lb for butter and 8.775 d a lb for cheese. In a manner reminiscent of his juggling with the social security figures of the British actuary, Mr G. H. Maddex, the Minister has rejected the advice of experts and has arbitrarily reduced these figures to 14.89 d and 8.42 d respectively. “The advice of experts means nothing to Mr Nash. His view is that the arm-chair Socialist planners in the Government know far more about farming problems than men who have spent their’ whole lives in close association with the dairy industry. “There are now , two different statements as to the working costs of the average efficient dairy-farmer. One is the considered opinion of experts, based on a consideration of evidence and statistics, and one is the despairing cry of a Minister who has to think of deficits running into millions before he can think of the dairy-farmers’ difficulties which he himself has helped to create. “Even the Minister’s figures cannot be accepted as accurate. We know how he was forced to vary his estimates from time to time last year concerning the possible surplus in the dairy industry account. Now he estimates a surplus of £600,000 for the season just passed and uses this to predict a net estimated deficit of something over £900,000 at the end of the current season. In our.view, last seasons surplus is likely to work out at something like £1.000,000 and this should provide for a corresponding reduction in the net estimated deficit at the close of the present season. “The Government's dilemma is purely and simply a result of Government action. The necessity for a correct balance between costs and prices has been ignored and as a result the Government has gone a long way toward destroying the economic equilibrium of the Dominion.” RISING LABOUR COSTS Another point mentioned by Mr Hamilton was the possibility amounting almost' to a certainty that higher labour costs would absorb a portion of the increase in the guaranteed price. The legislation governing the wages of dairy farm workers provided that wage rates should be varied in keeping with the guaranteed price and a mandatory increase in the pay of farm workers was practically inevitable. “What of the future?” Mr Hamilton continued. “We realise that the dairyfarmers want stability in their industry— a fact which hardly seems to be appreciated -by the Minister when he announces his price after nearly two months of the season have elapsed. In oraer to give the farmer that necessary degree of stability, the National Party, when it takes over the Treasury benches after the elections, Will honour all commitments which have been entered into by the Labour Government with regard to the current - season’s prices, while at the ; same time we will take immediate action to reduce fanning costs. “Our first step will be to return to the farmer the ownership of his own produce. The commandeer principle in the Primary Products Marketing Act will be entirely removed. We will then discuss with the dairy industry all matters relating to marketing and finance. Internal prices and the level of farming costs will both attention and we will assist the industry to attain a position in keeping with its economic importance io the Dominion.” MR MULHOLLAND'S VIEW HIGH COSTS AND LIMITED PRICES (By Telegraph —Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, September 16. “The whole of Mr Nashs statemen., boiled down, means the complete abandonment of the pretence that the guaranteed price is other than one definitely related to the market price,” said the Dominion president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, ( Mr W. W. Mulholland, commenting on the Ministerial statement on the guaranteed pi ice. “The argument that the price recommended by the committee would result in an unmanageable deficit in the dairy industry account is an admission that the Government has no means by which to raise prices above the parity of the markets,” he added. “It will be remembered that the aruficiai raising of prices regardless of what overseas prices might be was the keystone of the Labour Party s policy, and cn that rested the whole of taeii nolicv of raising wages and other expenditure which reflect themselves as increased costs. The abandonment of the artificial raising of prices .leaves the farmer at the mercy of hugely-in-flated costs.'