MR SAVAGE IN TARANAKI

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22430, 17 June 1938, Page 12

MR SAVAGE IN TARANAKI

GUARANTEED PRICE DEFENDED MAYOR OF STRATFORD HECKLED (FEESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) NEW PLYMOUTH, June 16. The Prime Minister (the Rt Hon. M. J. Savage), accompanied by the Hon. P. C. Webb (Minister for Mines), toured South Taranaki to-day, and received enthusiastic welcomes at several towns and stopping places. Waverley, Patea, Kakaramea, Mokoia, Hawera, and Eltham were visited, and in the evening Mr Savage reached Stratford, to receive a warm welcome. An unpleasant incident occurred at the civic reception in the Borough Chambers at Stratford, before Mr Savage addressed a big meeting in the Town Hall. A controversy had been raging for some days over the decision of the Mayor, Mr Percy Thomson, to hold the reception in the Borough Chambers, instead of the Town Hall, The approaches to the chambers and the reception room were crowded, and when the Mayor rose to welcome the Prime Minister he was subjected to a noisv heckling. Mr W. J. Poison, M.P., was also heckled, but with more good humour. Mr Savage was warmly cheered at the public meeting later. He devoted most of his speech to a defence of the guaranteed price system. “The,, question of guaranteed prices for but-ter-fat is probably as well known in Taranaki as Mount Egmont.” he said. “I take it that most of you look at one as often as the other, and there can be no doubt that if each is looked at in a clear light, both are equally attractive. and enduring. You have heard something of the hollow suggestion tha because I assured the conference of provincial delegates of the Farmers’ Union at Wellington that if the dairy farmers really wanted a special tribunal to fix the prices each season they would get it, the Government was running away from its plans, and its obligations. The Government has no intention of shirking its obligations. Its willingness to consider the appointment of a price-fixing tribunal means nothing more than further proof of the Government’s desire to meet the wishes of the -working dairy farmer. We want to get the best possible returns for the producer of butter and cheese. Any fair-minded man cannot fail to admit that the dairy farmer never before enjoyed the same security and standard of comfort as he experiences to-day. There can be no simpler test than this. What would have happened had there been no guaranteed price, and the dairy farmer had been left to the mercy o'f overseas market fluctuations? The Pay-Ont “Expressed in pounds of butter-fat monthly, the butter-fat payments would have ranged from 10Jd to 7Jd per lb. Under the Labour Government's guaranteed price system, which applied for the first time that season, many butter manufacturing companies paid a uniform payment of HJd per lb .of butter-fat each month. The companies ultimately paid out an average price for the season of more than 13Jd per lb for butter-fat. There have been no second thoughts about the position. The statutory ground for making adjustments was prepared in Parliament last session.

“Everything considered, the farmers’ criticism of the Government’s plan is largely in regard to the alleged inadequacy of the present guaranteed prices to meet dairy farm and dairy factory costs. It is known that there is great difficulty in ascertaining farm costs. Hie Government is anxious to have -accurate information, and it invites representative organisations and groups of dairy farmers to submit reliable farm cost figures. There is no desire on the Government’s part to do other than live up fully to its price fixing formula, which actually takes account of farm costs. If farmers think they can get a fairer price by giving their evidence as to costs to a tribunal, with a Supreme Court Judge as president, then the Government will not turn down this proposal.”