GUARANTEED PRICES

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 26

GUARANTEED PRICES

Warning Of Dangers (From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, December 2. A warning of the dangers inherent in guaranteed prices for farm products was given today by Mr J. V. White, of the Department of Agriculture. “While it is easy to be cynical about the cost of production apnroach in our primary industries, it must be recognised that a problem does exist,” he told the annual conference of the New Zealand Association of Economists. “New Zealand is a welfare state and the welfare state philosophy is in the air. “The ruthlessness of laissezfaire is out of keeping with modern thought ... in any case it doesn’t apply to any other section of the community. “There is no doubt, of course, that many other countries have carried the philosophy of protecting agriculture much too far. “It seems to be an economic phenomenon of the twentieth century that as a country’s national income increases an increasing proportion must be devoted to forms of agricultural price support. Some even maintain that such schemes have a built-in stabilising influence on the economy. “We must exercise great care that we do not carry our own to the stage where we can no longer protest about what our competitors are doing as constituting unfair trading practices,” Mr White said.