GUARANTEED PRICE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28642, 19 July 1958, Page 14

GUARANTEED PRICE

Main Topic At Question Time

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 18.

Question time in the House of Representatives today was largely devoted to the matter of the guaranteed dairy price provisions announced yesterday. Mr W. A. Sheat (Opposition. Egmont) was the first in. asking the Minister of Finance (Mr Nordmeyer) whether, with respect to the sum of £l2 million which he said would be a debt from the dairy industry to the Reserve Bank at the end of this season, ne would provide that dairy farmers- might deduct from then gross income for taxation purposes an equivalent sum a pound of butterfat supplied, so that they would be taxed on their real incomes and not on their debts.

Mr Sheat also asked whether the Minister would make a similar provision to apply Jn future years in respect of the annual sum of £5 million, proposed to be advanced by way of loan to the industry. Mr W. J. Scott (Opposition. Rodney) asked the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Skinner) whether he would consider referring the whole question of the price to be paid for dairy produce to the Select Committee of the House on Agriculture.

Mr N. L. Shelton (Opposition. Rangitikei) asked the Minister of Finance to say what rate of interest the £5 million loan to the dairy industry from the Consolidated Fund would carry. One Question Answered

It was not necessary to patrol the price of all foods to maintain the price index jigure of 1072 which stood at November 30 last, compared with the -latest figure of 1069, the Prime Minister (Mr Nash) said. He was replying, with the permission of the House, to a question asked by Mr T. T. Murray (Opposition, Stratford), who asked how he reconciled his statement that food prices would not be allowed to rise with the fact that the June Abstract of Statistics showed retail prices had risen by 2.1 per cent, from February to May. Mr J. H. George (Opposition, Otago Central) also asked the Prime Minister if, in the light of his’ reported statement that “prices might rise, but we wifi not let food prices rise.” that indicated the Government’s- intention to reintroduce price control on all foods.

Mr F. L. A. Gotz (Opposition, Manukau), in his question to the Prime Minister, also referred to the latter’s reported statement and asked whether the Government intended to use the savings made in the butter subsidy, by the reduction of the payout to dairy farmers, to subsidise other foods.