The Dominion. THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1938. TRIMMING THEIR SAILS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 204, 26 May 1938, Page 10

The Dominion. THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1938. TRIMMING THEIR SAILS

A speaker at the Farmers’ Union Conference yesterday, discussing the question of guaranteed prices, remarked that the farmers had now got the Government on the defensive. This is very true if any value is to be attached to the Prime Minister’s address at the opening of the conference proceedings. Mr. Savage’s one and only idea appeared to be to And out what the dairy-farmers most wanted and to give it to them. But what he actually promised falls a good deal short of what he appeared to offer. He certainly promised them a tribunal presided over by a Supreme Court judge to fix the guaranteed price each year, and to that extent threw his Minister of Marketing and his price-fixing dictatorship to the wolves. Mr. Savage, however, did not tell the farmers the order of reference which would guide and limit the judgment of his proposed arbitration tribunal in fixing the price to be paid. It is quite clear from the subsequent discussion that the members of the union were not blind to the omission of this vitally important factor in the proposition. Everything really depends on what the arbitration tribunal is permitted to take into account in fixing a price which would do justice to the dairy-farmer in relation to the rest, of the community. In the decision it reached on the subject the conference approved a formula which goes a long way toward safeguarding the position from the farmers’ point of view. It is necessary to bear in mind that the whole prosperity of this country, is centred round the successful conduct and development of our farming industry, and that the rewards of those engaged in that industry must at least be commensurate with the rewards attainable for comparable service in other avenues of industry. If this is not recognised, then inevitably farm life must grow increasingly unattractive, and labour and effort be diverted elsewhere, as is happening to-day. The comment that this year is electionlyear was given significant emphasis in the course of yesterday’s discussion. There can be little doubt that the approach of the elections is causing the Government to trim its sails even to the extent of displacing the Minister of Marketing from his position of autocratic authority. It will be recalled, for instance, that until quite recently Mr. Nash refused to state at all specifically what would be done in the event of a surplus accumulating in the dairy industry account. From the outset the Minister was evasive on the point, his usual answer being that “it [the surplus] would be used for the benefit of the industry.” This, of course, might mean anything the Minister chose to do; but it certainly did not mean paying it out to individual farmers. At least that is what Mr. Nash himself made clear when expounding his policy. Here is the question and the answer bearing on the matter : • Mr. Seifert (Morrinsville) asked whether any surplus in the dairy industry account would be refunded direct to dairy-farmers. z Mr. Nakh: NO. If there' is a balance the Government will not touch it for itself. It will discuss how it can be handled for the benefit of the industry. This extract is from the official report of the proceedings of the National Dairy Association when the Minister explained the working of his guaranteed-price scheme. The emphasis of capital letters which we have given to the Minister’s very emphatic negative is our own. Now in election year Mr. Nash and his political chief change front and decide that after', all the farmers ought to be paid the money which has been received for their produce. What would happen with, the surplus money in the fund if it were not election year can be guessed at. At the moment Ministers are very worried about the Government’s election prospects and are trimming their sails accordingly.