INCREASED COSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1941, Page 3

INCREASED COSTS

FARMERS AND GUARANTEED PRICE NO PROVISION MADE FOR COMPENSATION. CONFERENCE DISAPPOINTED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The following remit was carried unanimously by delegates at the Dominion dairy conference in Wellington yesterday: —-“That this conference expresses its keenest disappointment that at the time of announcing the price to be paid for the 1941-42 production of butter and cheese, no reference was made by the Minister to any proposals in the mind of the Government to compensate the farmer for factory, farm and home cost increases since 1938-39, and that the Dairy Industry Council be urged to continue to press for a price in keeping with the spirit of the Act.” In moving the remit, Mr F. W. Seifert (Morrinsville) said that the Government had now about £1,000,000 in hand as the result of increased cheese sales, but this amount would be required to meet the cost or switching over from butter to cheese. Other sections of the community had been granted a 5 per cent bonus to meet the added cost of living, but the farmers had had to carry on for four years with no assistance to meet the increased costs. “We cannot ask the British public to pay more for our produce at present,” continued Mr Seifert, “that would be unthinkable, and I don’t see how we are going to meet the situation. The remit was seconded by Mr J. S. Tosland (Pihama). Mr A. J. Sinclair (Te Awamutu), a member of the New Zealand Dairy Industry Council, said he would like to reply to the attack which had been made on Mr W. W. Mulholland (president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union) and himself by Mr Barclay, Minister of Marketing, on this subject during the debate on the Financial Statement on July 24. They all knew that the Government was not carrying out the guaranteed price as laid down by the 1936 Act, and everyone believed that they could not do so, but the Government should acknowledge this. He believed that Mr Barclay, who had succeeded Mr Nash as Minister of Marketing, was doing his best, but he should admit that the Government could not maintain the guaranteed, price as laid down in 1936. “The Government is not carrying out its promises,” he added; “and is only trying to hoodwink the farmers and the country on the matter.”