FARMERS HELPED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 16

FARMERS HELPED.

CHARGES DENIED.

BENEFITS OF POLICY. LABOUR'S ACHIEVEMENTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DANXEVIRKE, Friday. Speaking to a large an<l enthusiastic audience in the Dannevirke Town Hall, tlie Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, replying to a civic welcome, dealt with tlie assistance given farmers by his Government. He said it was a curious fact that the Government was. being l)laine<l for having loaded the farming industry with intolerable costs. The charge was contrary to the truth, and lie said without any fear of a valid challenge that the Government had already done more for the farmer than those administration* which they knew as purely farmers' Governments. The Go vernment's policy of cheap money had been of immense value to the farmer, said Mr. Savage. Two years ago, on July 7, 1936, lie had said that the day of high interest rates had gone. How had the farmer fared as a result of that policy in practice? To-day more farmers were getting cheap mortgages than ever before. For every six farmers with mortgages at 4* per cent in July, 1935, to-day 2<i farmers were receiving the benefit of that cheap rate. Saving in Interest Rates. It W!U the Government's deliberate policy that was keeping interest rates low. If the Government had consented to raising interest rates to local bodies all interest rates would inevitably have been driven higher. The saving in interest rates on new farm mortgages registered last year meant a difference of £183,400 V" J""" mortgages (at present £13..,000.000) as they fell due for savin - was at the 0 f tl..{<>().ooo a year. The Prime Minister said the Government was doing everything possible to expedite mortgage relief. Farmers who were still oppressed by excessive mortgage debts should remember that the present Government did not put the financial yoke around their necks. The cheapening of borrowed money was not the only benefit the present Government had given the farmer. Substantial assistance had been given in the form of increased subsidies. Guaranteed Price Policy. In regard to guaranteed prices to the dairy farmer, Mr. Savage said, it had been asserted without any proof at all that the gain had been swallowed by increased costs. Kverv farmer knew that such an assertion was very wide of the mark. As a result of the Government s policy of guaranteed prices the dairy farmer to-day was enjovinc a better standard of comfort and a firmer measure of security than he ever experienced before in "this country There could be no valid objection to the principle of the Government's guarantee price policy. The only complaint might be as to the adequacy of the price. "I have already said the Government prepared to give the fullest con to the complaint." said the Prime Minister, "knowing that no better alternative to the Government's formula for fixing prices is available. The desire of the Government is solely to give the dairy farmers a fair deal, fne guaranteed price system is the greatest boon ever given" to the dairy taimer in New Zealand's history."