GUARANTEED PRICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 60, 8 September 1937, Page 9

GUARANTEED PRICES

A FARMER'S POINT OF VIEW

(To the Editor.)

: Sir,—We have read in the Press of extravagant demands from different parts of the Dominion for increased guaranteed prices. What is wrong with us farmers? Are we the grabbing, grasping, greedy, grousing body of people our self-constituted leaders ■would have the public of New Zealand believe? Do we want the uttermost farthing we can prise put .of, the State, •without caring a button who ultimately pays for it? Do we want employees working for us at the lowest possible •wage and without hope for the future? Do we believe, as we are told, that there is nothing in farming, that it is A 'dog's life, and that everybody else lives under better conditions. and triakes more" money than we do? . . .

Individually, we know that we fieither believe, nor want, nor,are any, of these things. There is nothing much >vrorig with us farmers. individually. Collectively, we allow, without protest, our so-called leaders to brand us as the most self-assertive' and greedyagitators in the community. Individually, we know that our' everlastang grousing, while unpleasant, is only superficial and is the proverbial privilege of the: Britisher, • that we are ireally a t generous-hearted, kindly people who live a useful, self-respect-ing life, ■ with more comforts and luxuries than the majority of citizens, that farming'is the best possible existence, that we like to have contented pnd happy employees and take pride in their advancement, and that we dislike intensely and avoid the small minority of our kind who have the name of being grabbers and bad employers, and' who generally' have most to say at public meetings.

We'do not want our butterfat vary-! ing over the years from sixpence to half a crown a pound, and our wool varying from threepence to two shillings, and we do not want ever again to, cut good men's wages to the level of two years ago. We appreciate a reasonable fixed price for our produce based on an average of years, on which we can budget with safety, maintain and improve our.farms.and-stock, and on which we • can pay a reasonable standard of ■ wages which will encourage the lover of an: outdoor life to make farming his profession, but we do not want any of these, at the expense of any other portion of'the community. We may be dumb, but we are not fools, and we know that we cannot get anything for nothing, and any.sum that is paid to tis in excess of the returns over a period of years from the marketing of our produce has eventually to be paid back by us in some form ox another.

■ As individual farmers, and-in direct opposition then to our so-called spokesttien, we showed at the polls at last election that we would support a party with sufficient constructive and administrative ability to achieve that We have had a full year of guaranteed price for our butterfat, ,not only the equivalent of the average jof.the previous ten years, but rather better; interest rates have been "brought down; we have put our firianjcial obligations in order, and we have been.able to pay willingly reasonable .aked basic wages to our employees. yfe also know, that we have received '£650,000 more than our butter and Cheese realised on an ordered market, tfhisyear we are to receive approximately three-farthings per pound more than last year, and as individual farmers .we know that there is a danger therein and are somewhat worried thereby. We do not want the prices clamoured for by our so-called spokesmen, which would increase the payout by threepence or more per pound, as thereby lies disaster and the breakup of the system which promises so ■well. Possibly this is what the clamourers desire. All the farmers wish is to ■ receive in regular monthly payments such a price for our produce as will ultimately, over a period of years, be recouped by the State from the marketing of that produce.

All other sections of the community have fixed minimum basic prices for their services, not only those workers whose rates of pay are fixed by awards, but also all those other workers, doctors, lawyers, bankers, accountants, etc.. whose rates of pay are fixed by self-imposed scales of charges, •and farmers most fully appreciate their {own new-found freedom from the {anxiety and worry of periodical ups land downs.—l am,_ete., . . ' CINCINNATUS.