Mr Muldoon on farm problem

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32450, 10 November 1970, Page 1

Mr Muldoon on farm problem

(New Zealand Preet Association! WELLINGTON, November 9. The Government was not short of ideas about New Zealand farming but it lacked knowledge of which way the industry should go, the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) said at a Rotary luncheon today.

The future pattern of i farming depended on | whether Britain entered the < European Economic Community and the conditions of 1 its entry. “This means the long-term 1 solutions for farming will be delayed for some tune. But : there are some things we can do—and have donemeantime,” Mr Muldoon said. “When farming incomes are static or falling it is bad for everybody in New Zealand. “We have got to maintain a viable and expanding farming industry because in our lifetime it will remain the most important single factor in the economy.” Mr Muldoon said that failure of Britain to get into the E.E.C. would not mean New Zealand’s worries were over.

If that happened there would be a period of belttightening and Britain would be looking for the cheapest food it could get. “A good thing about the present economic situation in New Zealand is the strong external position," he said. “At the end of September external reserves stood at $350 million, compared with $2BO million at the same time last year and $193 million in 1966.

“This represents a considerable improvement in the position, even though the surplus is running down at the present time. “The big increase in external receipts has not come from improvement in prices, but from additional exports. While export proceeds have remained the same, import prices have gone up 20 per cent, so we have to run in order to stand still.” Mr Muldoon said the in-

temal situation was the “bad bit" at present. There had been als per cent increase in wages in the last year, productivity had increased by 6 per cent, and prices also by 6 per cent. The figures just did not add up.