A TORTUOUS PATH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1938, Page 8

A TORTUOUS PATH

When the Government embarked on its guaranteed price policy it chose a thorny and tortuous path, and the further it goes the more obstacles it is encountering. The latest demand from Southland for special treatment in the fixing of the price is but another illustration of the difficulties the Government must encounter in its endeavour to satisfy the dairy farmers and at the same time keep on side with the rest of the community. If Southland can produce evidence to show that it is deserving of special consideration, it may be taken for granted that other districts will not be slow to follow the! example, and the Minister of Market-! ing (Mr. Nash) may find himself I inundated with demands from all over the country. No doubt he is finding the task of fixing a price for New Zealand as a whole a sufficiently difficult one without having his problem complicated by sectional demands such as that from Southland. It all shows the impossible position that must arise when an industry is brought under political control and when the price the farmer is to receive for his produce is fixed by a Government dependent on the farmer's vote. Under such conditions the "bouncing" which the Prime Minister is so anxious to avoid but which the dairy industry will not permit him to avoid is inevitable and it is likely to become more violent as time goes on. Southland's "bounce" is no light one and it is probably the forerunner of many more. The Government's way of escape is to hand back to the dairy industry the control of its own affairs, including financial responsibility.