MEAT POLICY OF GOVERNMENT

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23317, 1 May 1941, Page 6

MEAT POLICY OF GOVERNMENT

PROPOSALS BY N.Z. FARMERS’ UNION FINANCE FOR PURCHASE NEXT SEASON . Requesting the Government, “as a matter of extreme urgency,” to decide and make known its policy for the disposal of meat in the coming season, and suggesting steps to be taken, resolutions adopted at a special meeting of the Dominion executive of the Farmers’ Union last week were read to the North Canterbury executive of the union yesterday by Mr G. C. Warren, who attended the special meeting as a delegate. “We have the honour of broadcasting to New Zealand the recommendations arrived at by the Farmers’ Union," said Mr Warren. Classifying meat taken by the Government into “exportable,” “eventually exportable,” and “unexportable," the Dominion executive proposes that the exportable meat—-meat exportable within the export year—should “finance itself as at present.” The purchase of the eventually exportable meat should be financed by short-term loans raised by the Government "from the genuine savings of the p,eople.” The purchase of the unsaleable meat should be financed from the Consolidated Fund. “These proposals will fairly distribute the loss over the whole community; will avoid any inflationary effect upon our currency through the payment for that portion of the meat which is not immediately exportable; and will avoid further stimulation of the demand for goods which are not available for consumption,” said the executive’s report, Other proposals under the head of “finance” were: (1) That, though the past season’s prices had not in all cases covered all production costs, they should be taken as a basis, in view of the war situation; on the understanding that the Government took effective action to prevent further increases in costs; (2) the Government should continue to purchase all meat offered fpr killing for export; .and the prices paid for' those classes which were exportable should be on the basis of the prices paid by the British Government at present. For classes not exportable, the basis should be the present prices to . farmers, and In both cases the actual distribution of the prices over the various grades should be further considered. Storage and Processing

For the actual disposal of meat the following suggestions were made:— “(1) For the purpose of examining the position and tentatively until the actual quantities are determined, the maximum quantity of meat to be held in store for export at September 30, 1942, be regarded as.a basis for calculation. at 220,000 tons; and at September 30, 1943, at 280,000 tons, the actual figures to be determined after consultation with the Australian and British Governments. “(2) That the erection of increased storage capacity, apart from freezing chambers, to 300,0(10 tons be undertaken; and also the construction of sufficient space for storing ipeat to be processed., "(3) The restrictions on storage of meat to enable the quantities suggested above to be worked tp, to be based on the principle of storing and nuking available to Britain the most valuable meat from the point of view of obtaining the maximum food value per unit of storage space available.. “(4) That as the shipping which it seems reasonable to expect to be available, and the limitation of storage, will make it impossible to treat for export very considerable quantities of meat, an immediate start should be made with the provision of processing Plant for canning- dehydrating, or otherwise dealing with the meat excluded from cold store for export. . . “(5) Immediate determination of a general farm production policy jn regard to future production, based on the probabilities of the situation, and aimed at obtaining the maximum production of those commodities (a) for which a definite demand exists, and (b), which do not involve cold or special storage, and with the overriding consideration of maintaining the economic stability and productive capacity of the farming industry.” , _ . , Mr Warren said that the Dominion executive meeting had been put forward a month because of the acute meat position, though farmers. wpuld be willing to kill surplus stock, if it would help to win the war, it was vital at the same time that the sheep industry should maintain its productive capacity, "The time is coming when the Empire and tens of millions of people in Europe are going to need food to save, them from starvation. We would be falling in our duty if we did not keep up production.”