The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1936. ON COUNTING YOUR BLESSINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 186, 7 August 1936, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1936. ON COUNTING YOUR BLESSINGS.

For the «xtM«e that lack* <issirlancc, For the urrovg that »serin resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

r" It was inevitable that the Government, in fixing the "guaranteed price" ■ for exported dairy produce, should leave room for controversy. It happens that the market price at the time of the declaration of the fixed price is relatively high. It may go higher, or it may fall. But whether it rises or falls this season, and however high it rises or however low it falls, the farmer is assured now of his income, which cannot be varied except as the quantity, and quality of his production varies. Only a hopelessly partisan mind will venture to deny-that ir, this assurance the farmer has something worth having.

It is contended, however, as it was certain io be contended, that the price should have been fixed higher. No doubt many farmers, remembering the loose statements made by some ill-informed Labour candidates in the election campaign, at least hoped for a higher prick But on any reasonable interpretation of the Primary Products Marketing Act, the Government has? done what it promised to do, no less and no more. All farmers are naturally anxious about rising prices of labour, services and materials, and the most substantial. criticism of the price fixed is that it will not cover the farmer's increased costs. This it is too early to say, but it should be pointed out again that the farmer has gained an advantage novel to him. In every other year both his costs and his receipts have been uncertain; this year he can calculate his receipts almost exactly. One of his most important costs, that of mortgage payments, is to be "adjusted' l ' —downwards—by legislation which is to be introduced shortly.

Meanwhile those who for any reason are endeavouring to persuade the fanner that he has been unfairly treated are not serving the interests either of the farmer or of the general taxpayer. The suggestion made by Mr. Coates, that the Government should have "taken the average for ten years of London prices and converted to New Zealand currency at the present rate of exchange," has only its novelty to commend it. It amounts to this that the Government should have taken into its calculations, for the purpose of fixing the average price, prices higher (by the amount of the exchange premium) than the farmer, in six of the ten years, actually received. His calculation, in short, is based upon a fallacy. Its result, according to his statement, would have been to raise the fixed price by 2d..,, He himself ; said, in the debate on the Marketing Bill, that every Id of the price, on the basis of last year's production, meant £.1,750,000 to the farme/s. An. increase of 2d wouldtherefore increase tlie contingent liability oil the' Budget by £3,500,000.. Tlie taxpayer wishes: to see the farmer fairly treated, but he is far from being disposed to acquiesce in the farmer's receiving "something for nothing," something for which the taxpayer, in the end, might have to pay. : , •