The Press TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1975. Complaints about help for farmers

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33753, 28 January 1975, Page 14

The Press TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1975. Complaints about help for farmers

Far too many people are complaining about the inadequacy or misdirection of the assistance offered by the Government to farmers last week. On one point no-one is raising objections: the produce of New Zealand farms is vital to the country's economy. The ominous condition of overseas markets has at last persuaded almost everyone that this is a point which cannot be disputed. Indeed, in most instances, the earnings from farm produce are a great deal more profitable to all who process and handle the products than they are to the farmers who turn out the raw materials. If the programme of grants and assistance announced by the Prime Minister (Mr Rowling) on Friday proves inadequate the Government will have to think again.

The assistance should be accepted as some recognition — belated though it is — by the Government of the plight of the fanning industry’ and of its importance to the rest of the country. If spokesmen for the various divisions of the industry persist in complaining about the paucity or placement of the grants and allowances, the rest of the community — which has be‘en asked to bide its time in demanding higher incomes — will be reluctant to concede the preference given to farmers. A spokesman for State Services employees has suggested that the aid should have been given where it was needed most. If the State Services spokesman were equally ready to apply the same philosophy to the Public Service membership instead of demanding pay increases across the board his recommendations might carry more weight. A little more than two years ago the Government was elected on a manifesto reprinted in the main from Labour Party promises assembled in 1969. Hardly any programme that might have been conceived could have been less appropriate to the economic conditions that were already foreseeable in 1972. Added to that, the bad luck of economic changes abroad confounded the efforts of an ill-prepared Cabinet, led by a Prime Minister who was adept at rousing the allegiance of voters, and superbly well equipped to stir a political party into concerted action. For all this Mr Kirk deserved great credit; but his leadership in economic matters was a failure characterised by procrastination and apparent boredom, or impatience, with the intricacies of the problems that faced the Cabinet. Given the history of a Government that is struggling to put matters right when the markets for New Zealand exports remain uncertain, the decision by Mr Rowling and his present team should be accepted with relief rather than with discontent.