THE GUARANTEED PRICE SCHEME

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22419, 4 June 1938, Page 22

THE GUARANTEED PRICE SCHEME

CO m EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —G. w! Dell accuses me of not having studied the effect of the Government's commandeer of dairy produce very closely. I will say this, that proposals of this kind, however attractive they may appear on the surface, are inherently unsound and hedged with serious administrative difficulties. I will also say that the Government’s treatment of the dairy industry will play an- important part in the downfall of the Savage Government. Why does Mr Dell have to rake up figures from the distant past to make a case? What the people want to know is the result of Labour legislation. Members of the Government have claimed that they were responsible for the boom production years of 1936-37. Apply this to dairying. The Government came into office in November, 1935. Heifer calves conceived at that time would not be born

until the spring of 1936 and will not be coming into production until next spring, 1938. Lambing was over by, election time, so no ewes could reproduce their kind fit for marketing. It could not be done in the time. The Hon. W. Nash, Minister for Finance, has definitely claimed that he has a formula - that would insulate New Zealand against the effects of slumps. Why did he not insul-te New Zealand against the drop in wool values? Let Mr Dell give the total exportable production figures for dairy produce this season. It has been an excellent season for production. The whole of the credit of the 1936-1937 production was based on security and confidence of the farming community before the Socialist Labour Government came into office. Dairy factories still pay 4 \ per cent., and I am given to understand up to 5 per cent, to the private trading banks for stocks held, which are very considerable. The dairy farmers are beginning to realise that the mortgagee was a very good friend to the man on the land. Owing to the burden of very high costs, the farmer-mortgagor is compelled to farm the mortgagee—very dishonest legislation—and it is nothing for the Labour Government to be proud of during a period of high prices for our products overseas. - At the present rate of squandering by the Government, it will soon be necessary to readjust all mortgages over again. Why did not Mr Nash insulate the mortgagee against loss? . . Apparently Mr Dell knows nothing of dairy company management and costs, but for his information the interest paid on paid-up capital is 5 to 6 per cent. The dairy farmer receives an advance payment; after paying all manufacturing costs based on the present Government’s labour legislation and Ministerial interference if necessary. The balance is paid to the dairy farmer as a final payment on butter-fat supplied, • and the costs this year appear as if they will amount to not less than 24 boxes of butter out of every 100 for collecting and manufacture alone. Would Mr Dell say exactly where it could be done cheaper by the Government taking over the factories? In other words, the dairy farmer has to pay out of what is left after it has been savaged and mauled about—rates and taxes, high production costs, employee or share milker, interest or rent of land, and compete for labour against a huge and highly expensive public works policy and very badly managed _ employment camps and jobs, meaning ruination for the small farmer and the larger ones being gradually weaned on to the dry teat. . ’ Farmers are beginning to see through the present Government’s hybrid German-Russian Socialism, and is it any wonder they are beginning to cry out with one voice from one end of New Zealand to the other: “Down with Savage!”—Yours, etc, H BLISS, Heathcote, May 30, 1938.