The Guaranteed Price

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 259, 31 July 1939, Page 11

The Guaranteed Price

' Sir,—-At the moment we hear much in and out of Parliament regarding the value to the dairy industry of guaranteed prices. The position to me appears to be that for the first year the dairyman received some £300,000 more than he would otherwise have done. During the second year, after meeting the deficit on the previous year he received half a million less than the world’s market would have given, and for the third year he will, after receiving credit for previous years’ shortage on realizations, be ahead of the general taxpayer (these including the wool and meat men who get no subsidy) by one million and a half. It is fair to assume that directly or indirectly the cow industry is a tax contributor to the extent of one-third of our total tax collections, and his winnings as against the community are thus reduced to a total of a million for the three-year period. But we have now to consider his added costs due to increased taxation of some 20 millions, his share of which would be around seven millions, leaving him with a total deficit of five million-odd. He, and also his fellow farmers who receive no boost, have suffered, and will still further suffer before relief comes, from increased costs as a result of the enforcement of higher wages, shorter hours, and a thousand and one -other harrassments.—I am, etc., FARMER. July 27. '