LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 307, 21 September 1920, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

j PRICE OF BUTTER Sir-Why should not tho price of butm. RD_.np? Wage-earners mnt waees raised because the cost ,f living h"cT the cost.of hvmg must not increase. Or put it this way. A Hamilton firm wants joints and offers 3s. an hour. But' I Mnt a joiner and when I offer him fc. he says ho will go to Hamilton. Very" well; I give him iis 35.; but I am n. teis mo 2s. M. for my butter; must I let the jqmer have it for Is. 9d> all/tn\ 'k' J , hat 6 «w*fc Ally to hasty readers who won't think: i, Put^rzr 11011 W K ot a kr <* °»°? t£L\ t ? at » 1 . 1 7 Mmtr y woduces any article which it can sell outside a t a sT fL What »™ e «»l*t sido the country to pay? There is no answer possible to ihis except the o£ v.ous one, that if the price te ouSde s w (fee on board) x, then that ZZ bo the price to insiders. 0r fid P "!;i t . this 7 a n V n : Even if butter •« wS. <kl. per pound. 90 per cent, of our people can well afford as much as s good for them. To assist the 10 per cent who cannot, the fanner pays half the' but er bills of tho 90 per cent, who can. /.?f» W Ifl We aTe rea,, - v nolr Ij " n t (as far as State, expenses eo) on the huge &m 1 7 ple who ■*»" letter. > wool, meat, etc. Worry them iust a little more, and their receipts will cease to increase by leaps and bounds, and where will you get your taxes then ? And as exports dwindle so must imports, and where will the four millions of Customs revenue be? «ffl the producer haTe a fwe market, and get the biggest price ho can outside; nnd let us recognise the fact that prices are up and wages must increase, too, and so nnd out accurately (this tho Govirnnient nro careful not to do) whicn workers are worse paid than others, and make the fact known. I could give you f-i m! plellty ' hut not in .precise'detail, a hey are not the ones who have i big unions and hiro soap-box orators to make their "grievances" known, and wax fat and rich, (like Jeshuron) and boycott harmless passengers, and barrack tor Father Jerger.—l am, etc., „ i , FABIAN. September 13. 1920. Sir,—l note that a great many townsfolk are getting agitated about tho price of butter. Kindly allow mo a little space m which to state a dairy farmer's view of the matter. Very, very few dairy farmers work less than 70 hours per wcofc; many work nearer 80 hours per week. On Sundays, whichl all other workers, a few excepted, can take as a day or recreation, the dairyman puts in 8 hours of toil. The same can be said of pubho holidays. But if some workers, owing to their occupation, work on these days, they get compensation in the way of time and increased pay. The cost of living hits the dairy farmer ]ust as hardly as the town -worker. Tim cost of production has also increased tre. mendously, and lessens the net value of tho apparent high price Ire "receives. What is a farmer's cost of production other than his interest in his land? These are a few items;— Manures, seeds, calf meals, pig meals, county rates, land tax, tho increased cost of all goods used at Ms fairy factory, increased wages to dairy factory workers and his own employees, cost of benzine and other material for milking plant, wpaira to carts and implements, horseshoeing, etc The dairy farmer sympathises most heartily with the low-paid worker with a family, in town; but why penalise him so that the whole community may get cheap butter? Could not the hitter be rationed out at a low price to low-paid folk with families only, iby means of tickets, the Government to make up the difference out of the Consolidated Fund? Why should the dairy farmer alone be singled out! when all commodities have increased at a greater rato than dairy produce, and many of them by hundreds per cent., and theapi same commodities fiave to bo used by the dairy farmer? I thank you for your attention.—l am, etc. DAIRY FARMER. Sir,—Wo lifear all sorts of rumours in the country that the railway and wharf employees aie not going to ' work the butter as a protest against the new prices. It will undoubtedly surprise these people to hear that the majority of thle dairy farmers have not been able to mako any profit on butter at Is. 7d. or Is. Bd.—the contract price our Government made with tho Imperial Government—and have only been .keeping on until they get a hotter price.—l am, etc., FRANKLIN WEBB. Levin, September U.