GUARANTEED PRICE

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1937, Page 14

GUARANTEED PRICE

SURVEY BY MINISTER.

[per press association.]

AUCKLAND, March 12

A. comprehensive survey of criticism of the guaranteed price voiced by advocates of the compensation price, together with a reply to allegations of high manufacturing costs, which, he maintained, were offset by considerable savings, was given by the Minister for Agriculture (Hon. W. Lee Martin) to-night. He said the Government was not going to be stampeded by small sections of impatient farmers into embarking on a course which wou/d be detrimental to the majority of those engaged in the industry. Mr Lee Martin said he still considered that the guaranteed price paid was a generous interpretation of the promise made by the Prime Minister. Not only was the average over the last 10 years generously interpreted, but the further sum of £580,000 was provided to meet, in some measure, the increase in costs which the Government recognised was inevitable as a result of its policy.

The price of 1/0 9-16 d was perhaps not fully understood by many farmers who calculated their returns on a butter-fat basis on which the equivalent was 1/3J, said Mr Lee Martin. “This is not the last word and the position has been made very clear by the Prime Minister, the Minister for Marketing, and, in fact, all the Ministers, that the whole position is to be reviewed in the light of the increased costs which have resulted from the Government’s legislation. To arrive at the basis of next year’s pay-out a committee had been appointed whose business it would be to go into the various factors involved and to report to -the Government. Several meetings had been held, and it was anticipated that an announcement about next year’s prices would be made much earlier than last season.

Referring to the question of costs, Mi* Lee Martin said the Government had been seeking to get a statement from farmers concerning the increase. He himself was milking 90 cows, and a careful estimate oi the effect as far as his farming operations were concerned revealed an increase of 5-Bd, which represented practically £7O. However, that was more than offset by the increased production, and his returns this year would be approximately £3OO higher than they were last year.