IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22317, 3 February 1938, Page 9

IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM

ro inr ruiTOR or ru* mtss Sir, —Professor R. M. Algie addressed a meeting cf the Auckland Provincial Freedom Association at Pukekohc last evening. You report him as follows; — “Had he (meaning himself) said 10 years ago that there would come a time when a farmer who worked to produce something would have no say in the sale of it, he would have been laughed at." Now, I presume dhe Professor was referring to farmers’ produce such as butter, cheese, frozen meat, bacon, and such like. Does Professor Algie not know that the farmer in this Dominion never had a say in the'sale of his produce? Seeing that most of his produce from the farm is perishable and exported prices are governed by the law of supply and demand. The farmer is at the mercy of the markets and he must take for his produce what ho can get on the world's markets in competition with ether farm-producing countries. Any market is dependent on what the public is prepared to pay; therefore the public make the price. The law of supply and demand comes in. During many years of dairy company work, I do not remember a season when farmers put a price on their farm produce for export and got it. Tooley street merchants, or any other merchant for that matter, will not buy at a fixed price on a fluctuating market. It is too risky. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe that on one occasion the price of our Dominion butter was fixed at Home from time to time during a season, and it proved a failure. When a farmer wants to sell his grass-seed, cats, barley, etc., he takes a sample to his merchant with a fixed idea cf its value. If he cannot get it and holds it. ho does so at his own risk; but he cannot get more than market value. Law of supply and demand again. Now. what is the use of Professor Algie talking about farmers fixing the price of their produce? So the laugh rebounds on himself, and anything further he has to say on political matters, and particularly that to do with farmers and their occupation, has no weight at all. It would be better if he confined himself to something he understands. —Yours, etc., BUTTERFAT. February 2, 1938.