WHY “THE SONG AND DANCE?”

Evening Star, Issue 22773, 7 October 1937, Page 18

WHY “THE SONG AND DANCE?”

MR CRATES ON GUARANTEED PRICE A PUHE CMMIANiEER LABIUI'S WIBK RHPDBTE [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON,. October 6. »Jj this guaranteed price all that it i. cracked up to be?” queried Mr Coates (Kaipara) in the House- to-night whenapeaking in the Financial Debate. ‘ Answering bis own question, Mr in reality a commandeer of « P » duce with a price fixed by the State. It had been freely *tated by.the ister of Finance that a deficit of £6&0)000 had occurred in connection with t « dairy industay account. Mr Nash; Estimated! _ . Mr Coatee asked what was the extra cost to the farmer of the Governments industrial policy. Could the Govern Sent disprove that farmers’ costs had S -The people were getting the benefit of the increased paid by the farm«r but the former was getting little of it, A, tremenodue song and dance badhwn made of what the Government had done ter the farmer. How was the Govern ment’s scheme working out? In the past New Zealand invariably had a premium of 4s to 6s over Australian butter, that had dropped to various levels, sometimes the premium being 6d, sometimes Is, and at other times there was no difference between tb© prices. , ' li The only point to consider ,is tnat, with all this window-dressing on the part of the Government an regard to-ifs grandiose scheme, the effect is that we find Australia is knocking at the door with competitive prices,” continued Mr Thorn (Government, Thames): Do you want to go back to Rafferty Mr Coates said it was the farmers’ responsibility to say what the scheme should be. _ . _ ~ .. , Government Voices: They said it at dhe last election! ■ 1 The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Parry): Are you opposed to guaranteed

t>nCoO? Mr Coatee: It is not a guaranteed ipnoc, but a commandeer with a fixed price. He added , that if the farmer " were placed in a position where he could handle his own show and be in a position to make what was over and above . the cost of control, there would be something to boast about. What the ' Government was doing was only the ginning of State schemes for controlling industry. •• “ Who torpedoed the farmers’ scheme ; when they Organised marketing?” asked Mr Langstone (Minister of hands), who replied to Mr Coates’s comment on the guaranteed price. It was, he continued, the member for Kaipara who combined with the Tooley street people to denounce and undo the dairy farmers’ organisation in New Zealand. Mr Coates issued his own •pamphlet to argue the point of quota :or a free market, and therein he criticised the co-operative societies of the dairy industry as not being co-operative but engaged in cut-throat competition. Now- he was saying the. Labour Go- ; rernment mutt not do anything to or- : iganise' famfers’ marketing, but must ! leave, them to cut-throat competition and allow the financial wolves of the

Old Country to deal with them in addition!