POVERTY PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1938, Page 6

POVERTY PROBLEMS

ANO LAND PRODUCTION DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS THE GAP BETWEEN COSTS AND PRICES ►’ (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.4 p.m.) RUGBY, November 15. In the House of Commons, the debate on the Labour amendment to the ad-dress-in-reply was continued by Mr Tom Williams, who, after complaining that yesterday’s speeches by the ministers of Health and Labour had given no indication that the Government realised the seriousness of the problems of poverty, turned to the question of agriculture, on which he advocated an increase in productivity, while maintaining improving conditions for farm labour and asking the consumer only to pay such prices as an efficient marketing system would necessitate. But he doubted, he said, if it could be done with the present "land ownership, or until they had a decided change in a system which restricted the best use of land. The difficulty today was that while the consumer paid more, this had no relation to what the producer obtained and he urged the establishment of a national organisation to secure a reasonable return for producers and to smooth out price variations. Sir Edward Rugles-Brise, speaking for the group of Conservatives who have tabled an amendment on agriculture which will not be called, complained that the cheap food policy pursued by Britain for a hundred years means that consumers were subsidised at the expense of producers. Between high costs of production and low levels of prices there was a ruinous gap, which could, only be closed by artificial means, of which he preferred a levy and subsidy. Mr Wilfred Roberts deplored the doubt in which farmers were left as to the Government’s intentions regarding agricultural production in war time. Mr W. S. Morrison (Minister of Agriculture) defending the Government’s record on agriculture, described past and future legislation which he claimed made for increased efficiency. He opposed land nationalisation. ■