"CATCH IN IT."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 186, 7 August 1936, Page 9

"CATCH IN IT."

GUARANTEED PRICE.

EXCHANGE PROFIT LOST,

"STATE POCKETING 2D LB."

(®y -Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day,

The guaranteed price for dairy produce was referred to by Mr. Coates > (National, Kaipara) " last night in hid Budget speech. Mr. Coates said if the , produce of the farmer made more than the guaranteed price, then surely the s farmer was entitled to the increase. He maintained that the country from one j end to the other really believed that, j "I think there is a catch in- this price, said Mr. Coates. "1 am sure , there is. I ask the dairy farmers to , take particular note of the point I am . "laking. While it might be arguable that the Government has kept the promises it made to the letter, it is certain • that it has not kept its promises in the spirit. That is putting it verv mildly." ° " Mr. Coates said that in some of the years on which the price had been based, there had been 110 exchange benefit. The London price had not been taken, and that was where the farmer had been taken in. The farmer should -actually be receiving 1/4J a lb, whereas he was going to receive just over 12Jd. That meant that the Government was taking about 2d a lb f.o.b. out of the exchange benefits that should still accrue to the farmer. There was only one way in which the price could be fixed, and that was to take the London price over the ten years. If the mean average were taken, together with the exchange, it meant that the Government was putting into its own pocket 2d a lb that rightly belonged to the farmer. The farmer would be far better off if he retained his own produce and marketed it himself. He agreed tha\, if the price were low the farmers were entitled to ask the Government for assistance. Mr. Armstrong (Minister of Labour): He was asking' you for a long time and didn't get it. Mr. Coates: He did get it, and it will take tho Minister all his time to refute it. . /