SAVING THE BACON

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 83, 5 October 1922, Page 6

SAVING THE BACON

What is wrong with the bacon and ham industry thy.fc it wants ■« Government guarantee^of some •£75,000 for a year? GoiVig by retail prices for both bacon and hams it does not seem thatrthe localconSatunei' c.au he, expected in. BW& ifc®

market much more support. Those in the trade know very well that the consumption has been considerably increased since prices were reduced some time ago ; and their experience is that it will be restricted when prices go beyond a certain point, apart from the customary Christmas ham trade. No one who knows Mr, J. A. Nash, the member for Palmerston North, ■will deny him possession of the sense of humour, but he did not show that he had it when he asked the Prime Minister in the House yesterday to back the ham and bacon industry's bill for £75,000. Mr. Massey readily enough consented to receive a deputation making such a request ; but he very properly declined to commit the Government to anything in the way of a guarantee of advances up to 575,000. The most natural question the public would ask, if he did / so, would be, what about the banks 1 This is a strictly commercial matter, to be kept, free from any taint of politics. Mr. Nash said the farmers themselves were prepared* to give guarantees up-, to £40,000. Then why not be content with tha+ and begin the export trade in a modest way, independent of Government assistance by way of guarantee? That is a question that ought not to be hard for the producei to answer. The Meat Export Control Board has, no doubt, information on the subject of the prospects for pork and bacon and hams that would be of service to those who wish to see an export trade in these goods put on a sound basis in the interests of producers in particular and the Dominion as a whole.