Payments May Go

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31772, 31 August 1968, Page 1

Payments May Go

Supplementary payments on wool might disappear, the national chairman of the meat and wool section of Federated Farmers, Mr F. G. Spackman, said last evening, commenting on the new floor price for growers.

The lower the floor price, combined with the more optimistic prospects for wool prices, could mean that supplementary payments might be done away with, he said.

If this were the case there would be a saving of about 8200,000 that had been paid to woolbrokers in connection with the scheme. “REALISTIC” MOVE

“This has been a realistic decision by the commission,” said the chairman of the North Canterbury meat and wool section of Federated Fanners, Mr A. F. Wright. “It has the advantage that it will tend to please those who are both for and against the continuation of supplementary payments.” Mr Wright said that the average level of supplementary payments over the whole clip last season was 1.5 c per lb, and the drop of 1c together with the improvement of the market would appear to mean to the observer that very little supplementary payment would be required if present market trends continued. At the same time the retention of the supplementary

payments scheme should instill some confidence into those farmers who had received supplementary payments in the past and who had some fears about the future. It set a floor to the market for the fanner, which should allow him to work within a budget not much below last year.

But if the commission had to support growers at the

new floor levels, then once again farmers would be in the position of having to take a lower income in the face of ever-rising costs. “It can have no direct bearing on the market as far as the buyer is concerned,” said the president of the New Zealand Woolbuyers' Association, Mr B. P Hill, when he was invited to comment on the new floor price to the grower.