MANY IN DEBT.

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

MANY IN DEBT.

FARMERS' TROUBLES. ESCAPE TO BE OFFERED. INJUSTICES TO GO ? <By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Supporting th"e Primary Products Marketing Bill, Captain H. M. Rushworth (Independent, Bay of Islands) in the House to-night, said that many of them were desirous that the dairy farmers and others should be placed in a position where they would recover their financial losses, - and unless something of the nature provided for in the bill were adopted there was no possibility of their getting out of debt.

During the last seven years there had been. no indication .of even the slightest possibility of the dairy farmer getting out of it, but he wanted them to have something better than that. He would to see them enjoy, a standard of living comparable with that enjoyed in other industries. The bill did open up an avenue of hope that the inequalities and injustices of the last 30 years might be corrected. The dairy farmer might be able to pay adequate wages for hie labour and attract people from cities, but the speaker did not want that to happen at the expense of any other section of the community. Could it be done? He thought it could, and he did not see any provision in the bill that would prevent it from being done. Mr. Kushworth declared that that section of the people entrusted with the distribution of the produce had failed, and the producer had tried by the cooperative system to do what the business section, which had let them down, had failed to do. He said that the suppliers had their franchise returned to them under the bill. Mr. H. G. Dickie (National, Patea): The 'suppliers have no say. Mr. Rush worth: They have their say through their Parliamentary vote. If they do not get a square deal from the Minister they can turn him out. - Mr. Dickie: They are only in a small minority. Mr. 'Rushworth: The dairy suppliers have people associated with them, such as storekeepers and transport workers. He went on to say that he would like to see a complete restoration of the sanctity of contract, which he contended would go a long way towards restoring confidence and stability. What was the alternative to the bill? There was the Adjustment Act paesed by the last Parliament, with its budgetary control, confiscation of equities and serfdom. He would rather be dead than live under those conditions. The alternative was more dreadful than that of the bad things alleged to be in the bill before the House.