DAIRY PRODUCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 93, 19 April 1940, Page 9

DAIRY PRODUCE.

GREATER OUTPUT.

HIGHER PRICE NEEDED. MR. W. E. HALE'S WARNING. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) GISBORNE, this day. "Dairyfarmers who are tied, under the guaranteed price, to very high standards of efficiency—standards which have been arbitrarily imposed by the Minister— feel that it is about time that efficiency of a similar nature is demanded from other sections of the community in their work," declared Mr. W. E. Hale, chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, in addressing East Coast dairyfarmers at the ward conference at Gisborne.

It was difficult, he said, to attract labour to farms when city conditions, both as to wages and hours of work, Vere made so extremely attractive, and unless some very radical alteration was made in the present policy he could not see how increased production could be secured. "One would be more hopeful of the future if one saw some evidence that certain sections of the workers were showing recognition of the fact that only by increased efficiency could better living conditions 'be secured," he continued. "I regret to say, though the need for an increased price to offset increased and increasing costs has been repeatedly stressed to the Minister as one sure way to bring about an immediate improvement in production, the Minister would not agree to any increase. Wives and Families Help. "It may be said that there has been an increase in production this year, and that this proves that the present price is adequate. This year's increased production has been brought about by forces of Nature and particularly the kindly season in those districts from which our greatest quantities of dairy produce come. In part, too, it has been brought into being as the result of greater effort on the part of dairyfarmers and their wives and families who, now to a greater extent than ever before, are called on to assist on the farm. Production has been falling in New Zealand during the past three seasons because dairying under to-day's high-cost conditions is less attractive than formerly.

"The present season's small increase is not due to any increased popularity in dairying. The symptoms that caused the decline in past seasons are still there, and unless particularly favourable climatic conditions are experienced next season there is likely to be a downward trend once more, despite all efforts which farmers will make to increase their production as part of the great war effort."