APPROACH OF THE GUARANTEE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1936, Page 6

APPROACH OF THE GUARANTEE.

With only six weeks now remaining before the Government takes over complete control of butter and cheese exports, under its scheme of guaranteed prices, the actual price to .be paid to producers is still undisclosed. At Hastings yesterday Mr. Nash, as Minister of Marketing, had the delegates to the National Dairy Conference guessing at the figure, but was not to be drawn into supplying the answer. "It will be something more than the price received during the past twelve months" was his provocatively vague statement. Of course the mathematicians have been busy, but the nearest they can approach to finality is that the price should be somewhere between 1/0$ and 1/1, plus whatever added sum the Government is prepared to give as good measure. From Mr. Nash's remarks it appears that he lias already made up his mind on the matter, but the Government has decided "for various reasons" that the time for an announcement is "not quite opportune." Why not? Is it because of the rise in butter now occurring in London? If so, the Government is clearly reserving the right to revise its figure at the eleventh hour.

Thus the eight to ten-year average may become nothing more than a theoretical basis. Other considerations are entering into the calculation,- and not only market trends, but farm costs, particularly wages, have to be weighed. The guarantee scheme is far more than a simple pooling arrangement under which the returns for butter and cheese are to be paid into a fund as the output is sold by the Government, and out of which the producers receive their payments; it is intended to set a level within which farm debts will be permanently adjusted. "When the price is known to the farmer the value of his land will be determined." So declares Mr. Nash. Will not the mortgagee hope as strongly as the farmer that the price will be fixed as high as possible? Should the price move higher in the second year of the guarantee it will then be too late for the mortgagee to share in any benefits. His cut, if any, will by that time have been made. That is one of the potentially unfair features of the plan. Farm wages and profits can move forward with any market advance, but any part of a mortgage written off is gone and irrecoverable-