A SQUARE DEAL IN BUTTER-FAT

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 87, 9 October 1920, Page 12

A SQUARE DEAL IN BUTTER-FAT

IS THE FAMINE-PRICE THE MINIMUM ?

10 THE EDITOR.

Sir, —As it is practically impossible, owing to considerations of your space and my time, to' reply to each, of my critics, I shall make a general reply. One correspondent seems to think that my view that dairy farmers should be content in tbo New Zealand market with less than the export price is calculated to encourage Bolshevism* My object is the reverse. The best encouragement of Bolshevism is«. grasp-all policy, and that is the policy I have opposed. To do this I have teen compelled to set aside personal feeling, and endeavour to reason with the very men for whom I have worked in the past. If I had taken the easiest way—the line of least resistance—and had been content to glide quietly on without thinking of where it was leading, I should have saved myself many slespless hours, and put many hundreds of pounds into my pocket. When producers of milk for Wellington were being sat upon, and thousands of gallons wero going into the city at 2d and '3d per gallon (freight paid), I thought there wis nothing but co-oper-ation for it, and helped to bring into being the Dairy Association, which has done, and can still do, good work for the producers. But, from the day we commenced to oi'ganise, I advocated reason, and to always bear in mind that there were others to be thought of besides ourselves. Then I was misunderstood and called by various names, and do not expect to be treated better now. I still believe, however, that if my action will only get men to think quietly and review the position we are in today, and what .is required to carry us through this reconstruction period, it will have been time well spent. I can assure critics that I have not turned right-about-face, and I really believe that the dairying industry is going to suffer in the near future through overreaching and straining to have that last fraction, which, instead of making our lot easier, will make it harder, through, .the extremely high values set upon land.

Mr. Editor, in order to cover up the real issues, many attempts have been made to side-track and leave me shunted in some quiet corner. These have been by personal attacks, by quoting halftruths, by comparing factory seasons' supplies with year-round town supplies, etc. Now, Sir, let us inform the ooneumers as well as the producers how the prices which the town suppliers are now obtaining were arrived at. It was first of all considered by the Board of Trade' that, for seven months of the year, this price must be exactly the tame as that received! by our up-country suppliers with the foUowing additions :— (a) Freight to Wellington. (b) One penny per gallon few the extra labour required in cooling, delivering, etc. (c) One penny halfpenny per lb of estimated butterfat for loss of by-pro-ducts.

Then for two months of the year there ■was to be a 15 per cent, increase, and for' the remaining thres months^ a 60 per cent, increase on the basic price. Now, if these prices are too high, it is not the fault of the Board of Trade, but of the farmers giving evidence, and if that was not correct then I should think it open for the board tb alter it. What I cannot quite understand is that, when the price of butter rose from 180s to 2505, and the price of milk set at that time was 2d per gallon less than now, many of the farmers were quite content, and considered it a good proposition. When, however, the Old Country found sihe would have to go still higher, and make it 280s for butter, milk had to follow, and then it was that we suddenly discovered what enormous losses we had ' suffered in the past, although, during that time, hundreds had retired to live in the towns.

Sir, I have never oven suggested that dairy farming is the.easiest or most comfortable job to be found. I do not say, moreover, that the miners and other la- :■ bourers are right ie acting as they are to-day. I say without fear that they are I wrong, and are doing much to increase the cost of living; but have two wrongs ever made one right? Surely, if we claim the right to extract the utmost for our produce, other men have just the same right to prooure the highest possible for their labour. If the capitalist, when he has an opportunity, increases the price of money, can he blame the worker for increasing the price of his capital (labour) when the opportunity comes to him ? I am not one of those who think it is necessary for our country to go smash, or that we must have a trial of strength—one part of the community against the other —before we can settle down and maintain prosperity. But I do think that the only way to avert the threatened danger is for a closer cooperation between town and country in order to realise that one cannot prosper without the other, that all must work, and that there is no place for drones in this country. .We must all realise that one part of the community cannot prosper without or at the expense of the other, that each section of the people is a cog in the wheel and must mesh with the rest, and that if an undue strain is placed on any one particular cog it must break and the whole suffer. Sir, I am aware that your space is precious, but up to the present no one has tried to say it is right that milk products should go free on an open world's market, whilst wheat and other products are prohibited from export. If wheat was freed to-day, bread would-be nearly double present prices. I ask again is it right that, because there is famine in Europe, our land values should go up and. up, making the rich still richer and the poor poorer? If these things are right and we must go on, then I have no more to say. If wrong, then let us endeavour to put them right before it is too late. If they are to be righted in an orderly way, the start must be made from the top. I believe if this were done in earnest, that in a very short time this could and would be in every way a reconstructed country, and the best place on earth to live in—really "God's Own Country."—l am, etc., W. T. STRAND. Lower Hutt, 6th October, 1920.