Not the whole story

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32612, 21 May 1971, Page 14

Not the whole story

There was surely a serious omission from the remarks that the president of the Federation of Labour, Mr T. E. Skinner, made about the state of fanning to the annual conference of the federation this week.

To quote Mr Skinner: "As time has gone on, and with the high level of protection given by overseas countries to their domestic farm industries, the sale of

New Zealand primary produce in spite of the efficient production by world standards, has become less economic.” But Mr Skinner told only part of the story and did not refer to another aspect of the declining profitability of farming, of which he would have personal knowledge—that is spiralling internal costs associated with higher wages rates. Indeed in the period between the Arbitration Court hearing of the application for a new general wage order last year and early this year when Federated Farmers put to the Government its proposals for a cost-price

support scheme for fanners, it was claimed that farmers’ costs had risen by about s4om in a complete year. There may be room for differences of opinion on the extent of support that should be given to farming and Mr Skinner may doubt New Zealand’s ability to support farming on a grand scale, but shortly after the Federated Farmers* scheme had been presented, an industry leader suggested that the whole of the cost of the scheme could be met out of the extra income tax that Mr Muldoon would be receiving as a result of last year’s wage increases.