NO CHANGE THIS SEASON

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22195, 11 September 1937, Page 16

NO CHANGE THIS SEASON

MINISTER REPLIES TO! DEPUTATION PRICE CLAIMED AS QUITE FAIR ALLOWANCES MADE FOR COSTS [From Our Parliamentary Keporter] WELLINGTON, September 10. No change will be made during the current season in the guaranteed prices for dairy exports, announced last month. This was made clear by the Minister for Marketing (the Hon. W. Nash), in his reply to the deputation from the New Zealand Farmers' Union and Southland dairy farmers, which waited on him to-day. The Government, he said, was attempting to find a procedure by which the man who lived in the country would receive as reasonable a return for his labour as the man who lived in the town. Under the guaranteed price system that ideal was certainly being approached. Discussing the deputation's assertion that the price fixed would not allow the dairy farmer to pay competitive rates for wages. Mr Nash said the price covered the payment of so much per lb of butter-fat for all labour. on the farm. If that navment was included in the price, whoever did the work would have to be paid for it. If the work was done bv the farmer or by his family, paySent waTstill there.' In fact the pried had been so calculated and fixed that full allowance was made for every Denny which, on the average, was invested in a farm, to enable the farmer to produce butter-fat.

Figures presented by the Minister also showed that the pay-out of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company was 13.62 d, with costs of 1.85 d, showing an increase in costs of .Ida over the year. . "The prefential margin for cheese on a 10-years average was .86d per lb of butter-fat," Mr Nash continued, "but the Government endeavoured to pay Ud. We allowed 2Jd as dairy factory costs for butter, but in many cases costs worked out at below 2d. The fact of the matter is that the allowance for butter wa3 too high, but we shall do everything possible to redeem the promise to the cheese producer regarding the preferential margin of Cheese Production

The figures for cheese production were given by Mr Nash as follows.—

Discussing the position of Southland cheese companies, Mr Nash said the average returns for 19 companies showed that the average pay-out was 14.62 d with average costs to f.o.b. of 3.57 d. On the new guaranteed price of 7.54 d the Southland factories should be able to pay out 16.61 d a pound but-ter-fat The Edendale factory, in Southland, on its 1936-37 figures should pay out 17.13 d this season. On the point of working and maintenance costs on the farm, Mr Nash said the Farmers' Union, in the statement placed before the committee appointed by the Government, had suggested an allowance of 4.64 d a pound of butter-fat The figure actually decided on by the Government in this respect was o.OOd, so that the actual allowance was higher than that claimed by the farmers' representatives. "In fixing the prices for cheese last year," Mr Nash continued, "we made an allowance of 2.75 d a pound of but-ter-fat for manufacturing costs. The average for the Dominion worked out at 3.25 d, and this is the figure which we are allowing as factory costs for cheese this year. We were urged that a margin of 1 l-5d was desirable to keep an even balance between butter and cheese and to keep up cheese production, but for the manufacture of cheese we have decided this season to pay 2d a pound of butter-fat more than is to be paid for butter." The Farmer's Position Mr Nash claimed that the dairy farmer was better off last year than he had been for the preceding seven or eight years. A member of the deputation: Those were slump years. Every company had debit balances. "I said at Stratford that we had fixed the price this year to represent a payment of £4 a week to every farmer, plus £1 10s for his house," said Mr Nash. "There was not a single farmer among the 800 or 900 in the hall who would get up to say that he would not receive that amount, and there was no mesmerism about it, either." Mr W. J. Poison, M.P. (a member of the.deputation): They didn't want to advertise their shame. Another member of the deputation said he was producing 6000 pounds of butter-fat a year, but he was not receiving a clear personal return of £5 10s a week. Mr Nash: If you will give me all the information, I will go through the figures with you. Mr Poison: Speaking as a practical farmer, I suppose. In the price fixed by the Government, Mr Nash continued, allowance was made for working and maintenance costs, and interest and labour charges. Everything -had been subjected to the most thorough investigation, so that the price fixed should be equitable in every respect. If the price was unfair it was strange that the price for dairy cattle should be rising. , ~ A member of the deputation said that there had been very large stock losses, because of disease last year. "Nevertheless," said Mr Nash, "if farmers are going to pay up to £ls a head for stock they must expect to get something out of it The average prices for heifers are higher than they have been for some years." Allowance for Labour Discussing the matter of farm labour costs the Minister asked the deputation what it considered would be a fair allowance a pound of butter-fat to be made to the farmer on this count.

A voice: 5Jd. "The figure we have allowed is over a penny a pound more than

Pay-outs and Costs Mr Nash quoted at length the aver- _.—«... n.ito anH Hnirv factory costs ace pay-outs anu uunjr ».»>««••« for various parts of the Dominion. In the case ol butter the respective figures for pay-out and costs per lb or butter-fat wera as follows:— Pay-out. d. per lb butterfat, d. Auckland t .. 13.58 New Plymouth .. 13.60 Wellington •• ".63 Hawkers Bay and Gisborne .. lJ-g-j Flat average .. 13.54 1.92 2.02 1.92 2.25 2.03

Factory Net. Pay out. . costs. yield Auckland 14.90 3.16 2.52 New Plymouth 14.45 2.88 2.44 Patea 14.58 2,83 2.45 Hawke's Bay.. 13.60 3.52 2.45 Wellington 14.57 3.53 2.48 Southland 14.62 3.57 , 2.59 Flat average .. 14.45 3.25 2.49