MIXED OPINIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 31, 5 August 1936, Page 12

MIXED OPINIONS

RECEPTION.IN TARANAKI

(Special to the "Evening Post.'")

NEW PLYMOUTH. This Day. The announcement of the guaranteed | prices for butter and cheese met with | a mixed ■ reception from Taranaki dairy farmers. Though some expressed disappointment the majority said that the figures approximated expectations and the farmer would not be so badly [ off. All agreed, however, that rising costs were an important factor in the final assessment and were likely to cancel some, if not all the benefits intended, though a ray of hope is seen in the contemplated mortgage adjustments. Many dairymen had not expected the prices to be above the ruling market rate which, it was recognised, had been forced up by 'unusually heavy, buying. Therefore, though they hoped 'that. the Government would be iriduped by'the-rising market to fix higher prices than' the average for the last ten .years, and had been prepared to protest vigorously, if the prices had been any lower, they are. at present satisfied by the position. What is disturbing-to-the. dairyman is the predicted » advance in farm labour and factory costs, as the result of which a serious-view of the-situa-tion is taken :in some quarters. Suppliers, it is. stated,■ wiH-be nearly a penny-a pound worse voff than they were last season, increased costs'arc estimated •by reliable authorities at from 30 to 50 percent. Last year cheese crates.cost ;is lid.and-this year they will be more than 2s 6d. Butter boxes also must increase.. It is not known, therefore, what' factory costs will be! ■ . ■

Fear is expressed that farmers' with 200 acres or more will be forced, from dairying into, sheep;, and a decline in .dairy output for the coming season is predicted, some factories already having lost suppliers to sheep. Other people, however, are- not unduly apprehensive of the result and point to the enormous increase in production in the last five years.