DAIRY PRICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 21, 25 July 1939, Page 10

DAIRY PRICES

-FARMERS' STANDARD

BASIS OF ASSESSMENT

OPPOSITION VIEW

Criticism of the Government for failing to pajr the price for dairy produce recommended by the committee set up to advise the Government last year, was expressed by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. A. Hamilton) in a statement issued last night. Mr. Hamilton claimed that the Minister of Marketing (the Hon. W. Nash) had passed over the proper basis of assessment when fixing the price. "As we are now within a,.week or so of the end of the dairy year, it is not to be wondered' at that many expressions of opinion are being offered by various farmers' organisations on the merits and demerits of the guaranteed price system," said Mr. Hamilton. "Though general , satisfaction is expressed with the present marketing system, there is much criticism of and disappointment with the Government's failure to pay a price that will place dairy farmers on a basis comparable with the general standard, of living throughout New Zealand. To put itanother way—to pay the farmers, as was promised, with the same measuring tape as that with which payment to other sections of the community is measured. COMMITTEE'S RECOMMENDATION. "Dairy farmers have not forgotten the Government's treatment of the price recommendation of the special | committee set up by the Government, to fix the price for the 1938-39 season. The farmers looked upon that committee—and they were entitled to do so— as the Dairy Farmers' Arbitration Court, setting out to fix a fai- price. But Mr. Nash, for the Government, said that tho price the expert committee recommended was more than the produce was worth —more ' than it would realise on the world's markets. He passed over entirely the basic factors set out in the Primary Produce Marketing Act for assessing the guaranteed price. By so doing, he inflicted wage cuts on the farmers, directly overriding, in so doing, the judgment of the expert committee of the Government. "The undercutting of the committee's decision meant a decrease of £1,289,000 to the dairy industry for the year, as events have proved," Mr. Hamilton continued. "The farmers received short payment of that amount at least from the Government without taking into consideration at all the failure of the Government to check' the upward spiral of costs, "The comparison of the recommendation of the committee with the arbitrary decision by Mr. Nash reveals that, while Mr. Nash reduced the assessment on all "points, the severest deduction was in the allowance for labour on the ■farm. This'is an attitude in which the Government unfortunately persists. LONDON PARITY. '■Dairy farmers have been told virtually that the price to be .paid for butterfat must be based on the^London realisations, and that continued deficits would break the scheme down. To say that there is no alternative to the present system other than to revert to the system operating prior to 1936 is wholly misleading. This is not now possible, for obvious reasons. It might also here be asked would reversion to 1936 conditions bring about a free exchange as existed at that date? "But.'at the, present time many farmers can see the Government's breach of faith with them through ever-rising costs, exchange,control, and the breakdown of both the letter and the spirit of the promises made in 1935 and afterwards embodied in the Primary Produce Marketing Act. They 'can see that, with a fixed price for their butterfat while farming costs are allowed to, continue their upward course, their equities in their farms are vanishing while they attempt, against odds, to maintain production on a full-time basis. This is the crux of the dairy farmers' situation today, and any other discussion is away from the point. "What the dairy farmers are concerned with, as well as farmers generally, is that if the Government cannot reward the farmers with the same yardstick measurement as is used for other sections of the community, is- n not then a fair request to ask that i other sections of .the community should be rewarded with the same measuring tape as is used for the farmers? All are agreed thfit dairy farming constitutes a very important basic part of our economic life, as does farming generally, and it does seem only fair that.dairy farmers should not be asked to work on a lower standard of reward than other sections."