PLAIN SPEAKING

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 127, 31 May 1944, Page 4

PLAIN SPEAKING

FARMERS ON STABILISATION O.C. PALMERSTON N.. This Day.

There was plain talking at the interprovincial conference of the Farmers' Union at the refusal of the Government to meet the call of primary producers for increased prices for their produce, and to lower farm costs. It was pointed out that in Australia the dairy fanner was receiving 22d per lb. for butterfat, but in New Zealand only 16.569 d. For pig meats the Australian . farmer received 9d, whereas in New Zealand he only got 6£d and 7d per lb. Some delegates declared that the fanner had been called upon to bear the full weight of stabilisation despite the fact that he was producing 90 per cent, of the national wealth. Those handling the produce over the wharves received from 7s to 8s an hour, but the farmers' return for his labour worked out at from Is 9d to 2s only.

Other delegates declared that the Government was class conscious and was building up a standard of living for the cities by keeping the farmer under heel.

The following motion was carried: "That this conference is of opinion that it is impossible to increase production adequately while costs are increasingly high and prices below world parity, and we urge that a Royal Commission of three Supreme Court Judges be asked for to review immediately the actions of the Stabilisation Commission."

The conference is also asking the Government to adhere strictly to the guaranteed price.