HIGHER COSTS MET

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20258, 29 July 1937, Page 10

HIGHER COSTS MET

SHEEPOWNERS’ POSITION. NEED FOR A REDUCTION. DANGER OF SUBSIDIES. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) •WELLINGTON, Thursday. Remarking that the fortunate increase in the primary producers’ income during the last year enabled the country to meet the extra charges imposed on industry since the presenl administration took office, Mr H. D. Acland, president of the New Zealand Sheepowners’ Federation expressed the fear at the annual meeting of the Federation that .rising costs would bring difficulties In their train and the cold wind of depression might blow Utopian theories away. Rising costs might delay recovery. “I feel convinced,” continued Mr Acland, ‘‘that any undertaking by the Government to guarantee to any section of export producers security of a return for Its product higher than that Justified by world prices is not possible without Injustice to some other form of production from which a dlreot subsidy might be taken or to the general taxpayer, who will be required to foot the bill.”

“There is also a grave danger that the British farmer might deeply resent the suggestion of a subsidised surplus product being dumped on the British market. To my mind a more equitable approach would be to reduce the costs of production by reduced charges of interest, land value, taxation, etc., to a point justified by the average return for a particular product over a reasonable period of years.”

Mr Acland, after referring to the returns of sheep for the year, there being over 31,000,000 head in the Dominion, which constituted a record, said there was a swing over towards sheepfarmers on the part of some dairyfarmers, the higher returns for wool and stable prices for lambs being no doubt responsible.