FARMERS’ REWARD

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 234, 1 July 1939, Page 12

FARMERS’ REWARD

Government To Be Approached

PRICE FIXATION

Dairy Industry Voices

Dissatisfaction

Dairy-farmers would never rest content with a guaranteed pt ice that gave them no more than £4 10/- a week as reward for their labour and experience, said Mr. A. J. Sinclair, Te Awamutu, yesterday, when discussion of the guaranteed price was resumed by the National Dairy Conference in Wellington. It was resolved that immediate representations should be made to the Government. The resolution adopted was that the conference should delegate to the representative committee set up last year, comprising representatives of the National Dairy Conference, South Island Dairy Association, Farmers’ Union, and Dairy Board, the responsibility of placing before the Government without delay the urgent necessity of establishing the recommendation! of the 1938-39 advisory committee as the basis of the guaranteed price for 193940; and that the committee should be requested to report to the industry the results of its conference with the Government, and that the conference should support any recommendation made by the committee. This resolution, framed by Mr. Sinclair, was carried unanimously. Faced by steadily rising costs, said Mr. Sinclair, the dairy-farmer was asked by the Government to stay put on the guaranteed price, while other sections of the community clamoured for increased wages.

At the March conference v of the Dairy Board tlie Minister of Marketing, Mr. Nash, said he had had to go to people whom he bad for years helped ask for more, and he had had to ask them not to ask for more. The Minister had overlooked the fact that it was not possible to go on for years instilling into men’s minds that the only thing worth fighting for was higher wages and shorter hours, and then to expect them to change their outlook overnight.-. Demands of Labour. The labour unions had ignored the Government’s request for stability in costs, and were clamouring for further increases. Dairy factory employees were demanding that the minimum wage for men doing the least skilled work should be increased from £4 10/- to £5/5/- a week, with corresponding increases graduated to £7, for the more skilled workers. The Auckland fertilizer workers were at present on strike; they did not consider the interests of Hie dairy industry, or any interests other than their own. Two days ago lorry drivers operating under the Auckland award gave employers seven days to adjust their grievances, otherwise they would take “appropriate action.!’ A strike of lorry drivers would so disorganize Hie dairy industry and make it so difficult to carry on, that the industry might have to consider taking “appropriate action” itself, by shutting down the factories. It was as serious as that. The dairy-farmer was expected to shoulder one intolerable burden of increasing costs without protest, to work exceptionally long hours, and to help the country through its present difficulties by increased production on a guaranteed price, which gave a reward of £4/10/- a week. “The Government can be satisfied that this conference will never rest satisfied with a guaranteed price that gives the farmer no more than that for his time, energy, skill and experience,” said Mr. Sinclair. A Reasonable Request. “Our demand today is a most reasonable one. An advisory committee, on which the Government was ably represented, unanimously recommended that the guaranteed price for the past season should bo placed at a figure which would enable the average efficient factory to pay 10.75 pence a lb. butterfat for butter, and 18.75 pence a lb. butterfat for cheese.

“There was no dissenting voice on the committee.to this recommendation. It was unanimous. It was supported by a mass of evidence, and was based on the principles laid down in the Primary Products Marketing Act. “The Minister of Marketing overrode the findings of ills own comm+ttee. He arbitrarily increased the average butterfat production from 2401 b. a cow as estimated by the committee to 2501 b. We don’t know where he got his evidence; I don’t believe he had any evidence. I am game to say that; I don’t believe lie had a shred of evidence.”

The industry had experienced a disastrous season from the point of view of production, and the figures of the herd-testing associations showed that the average estimated butterfat production a cow of all cows under test for the past season, was only 2101 b. The Minister arbitrarily increased the figure of 57501 b. butterfat for each male unit of labour to 60001 b., and by these methods deprived dairy-farmers of the fair and equitable return recommended by a committee of experts, who held an exhaustiveXeonference lasting 25 days. The Dairy Board conference considered this matter ■ last March. They made an extremely generous gesture to the Government. They said in effect that the industry would forger the injustices inflicted during the season just closed. It would go further, and would ignore the increased costs since the committees report. All that it asked was that for the coming season the Government should pay the price recommended by the advisory committee 12 months ago. “I don’t think that any fairer proposition than that could be placed before the Government." he said. So far that request had not been acceded to. The dairy-farmer was asked to stabili.- costs by carrying on at an unrenninerative price, while other sections of the community demanded increased wages. They were fully aware, he snid, of the financial implications of their just demand; but it was beside the point to say the country could not afford it. There were many things the country could not afford to do, but they saw no indication that organized labour recognized this fact, nor any indication on the part of the Government to recognize it.

A Crisis Coming-

“We are living in a fools’ paradise,” he said. “We cannot go on as we are doing. All that the dairy-farmer asks is that, whatever sacrifice he is compelled to make, the rest of the community should be called upon to make comparable sacrifices. There is a crisis coming in this country, but dairy-farm-

ers will not be made a chopping-block for the rest of the community.” They recognized the difficulties faced by organized labour. Increased costs were nullifying the benefit of increased wages. Further increases would' not solve the problem, because costs' and prices would continue to chase each other in a vicious spiral, unless the Government was prepared to alter drastically the policy whiqji had placed the ■ country in so difficult a position. “The dairy-farmer to be singled out as the scapegoat of organized labour. The time will soon come when he will have no alternative but to consider appropriate action,” he concluded.