COUNTRY MISLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 106, 6 May 1936, Page 11

COUNTRY MISLED.

EJECTION PROMISE.

FORMER MINISTER'S CHARGE.

"PEOPLE WIIiI, WAKE UP."

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, th*B day.

A claim that the country had been misled as to wliat was a guaranteed price, if the ibill was an expression of the Government's intentions, was made by Mr. A. Hamilton (National, Wallace), in speaking on the Government's marketing proposals. Next to the monetary system, he said, the guaranteed prices plan had been the most important factor in the election.

People thought that a minimum price would be guaranteed, and a minimum price would have satisfied the requirements of the guaranteed price plan. Another point was that the price was to be fixed by the purchaser. Usually there were two parties, a buyer and a seller. When the farmer saw what the bill meant he would realise that he had been misled, and that the position was different from what he had anticipated.

Referring to the question of marketing, Mr. Hamilton said that the marketing of New Zealand produce in the past had not been so bad. Production had increased enormously, and those responsible for the marketing had never failed to dispose of it. Farmers up to li) 30 and 1031 had received reasonable returns for their produce. There had been a number of small difficulties and the Government wae hanging a big bill on to them when a smaller one would have clone. The buyers of produce overseas would not tolerate the produce being in the hands of one seller. Tbeir only alternative was to go to some other market.

"We want to see the dairy farmer getting all he can," said Mr. Hamilton,

"but we do not approve of the Government's purchase. So far as the making of an agreement is concerned, there was no 'better champion of agreements for primary produce in the British Empire than tho member for Kaipara, who, when in London, completed more satisfactory agreements that were to the benefit of New Zealand producers than any other man could have done." Prices and Mortgages. Mr. Hamilton asked the Government to tell the country what would happen if the price wae fixed' at 1/1 and mortgages were adjusted on that basis, and in tho following season the price rose to 1/3.

Mr. W. T. Broadfoot (National, Waitomo) said ho did not think the Government could carry out its promise to eliminate market fluctuations, because it was proposing to fix a price from year to year. How could fluctuations be eliminated ? It could not be done. The people were being deluded by highsounding phrases, and would soon wake up. He had met people who had the gravest fears for the dairy industry. He issued a note of warning to every j)crson engaged in primary industries concerning the position dairy producers would find themselves in in a few days. Mr. Broadfoot said that as events were developing it was impossible to obtain labour to carry on primary industries, and the situation would be intensified in the next few years. Could they blame the son of a farmer leaving the land and going on to public works ? The pay, he understood, was to be 10/ a day. One of the acute problems of the future would be of labour to carry on primary industries. If exports went down in quantity the standard of living would go down.