Wool Supplementary Loses Favour

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31764, 22 August 1968, Page 1

Wool Supplementary Loses Favour

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 21. The supplementary payment for wool has lost the support of the electoral committee of the Wool Board.

In a surprise move tonight the 25 committee members representing sheepowners throughout the country voted for support payments to be discontinued and growers to accept market realisations.

Their decision came on the eve of crucial talks between the Government and the chairman of the Wool Board (Sir John Acland) on Government finance for the Inter national Wool Secretariat.

“The responsibility for restoring the economic position of the wool industry has been thrust right back where it belongs—on the Government, “said an electoral committee

member and the president of Waikato Federated Farmers, Mr M. G. Hewitt. “The industry is not prepared to go into debt to rectify a situation beyond its control,” he said. Narrow Vote

Two months ago. Federated Farmers meat and wool section narrowly voted in favout of a continuance of supplementary support payments. No details of the scheme that Sir John Acland intends presenting to the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) are available, but during today’s electoral committee meeting members frequently pointed to the Australian Government which subsidises the Australian Wool Board’s contribution on a dollar for dollar basis.

The Wool Board is expected to find more than s4m as

its share of the I.W.S.’s expanded budget of $31.2m. In discussing the support price at today’s meeting of the electoral committee, Mi D. W. Middleton said the scheme was not serving a useful purpose to those farmers hit by low prices. “Support payments would have to be increased consider ably to be of any help, and they would have to be increased by an unrealistic figure to do that,” he said. Mr W. Malcolm said that the deficiency payment was the only brake on the desire of the Government and the Treasury to sell the stockpile at its own evaluation to obtain urgently needed overseas funds.

Other speakers pointed to the need of woolgrowers for any help they can get, but decided to seek other avenues of assistance for them.