PRIME MINISTER

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1938, Page 4

PRIME MINISTER

SPEECH AT STRATFORD (Per Press Association—Cooyrigbt). NEW PLYMOUTH, June 16. An unoleasant incident occurred at Stratford at the civic reception, which was in the Borough Chambers, and was held before Dir Savage addressed a crowded meeting in the. .Town Hall. A controversy had been raging, for some days, over a decision by the Mayor, Mr Percy Thoms-n, to hold the civic reception in the Borough Chambers instead of in the Town Hall.

i The approaches to the Borough Cham. ; bers and also the reception room were . packed with’people when the Mayer j rose to welcome the Prime Minister, , and the Mayor was subjected to some i noisy heckling. Mr ~\X. J. Poison, M.P.. was also . heckled, but with more good humour . I Mr Sn vasre was warmlv cheered. ! The Prime Minister addressed a nubile meeting here to-night. The hall was crowded. Mr Savage devoted most of his speech to » defence of the guaranteed price system. “The question of the guaranteed prices for butterfat is probably as we'l kn:wn in Taranaki as Mt. Egmont.” he said. “I take it that most of you I loot- at the one as o f ten as the other, j and there can be no doubt that, if ea-'h is looked at in a clear light. tliev both are equally attractive and enduring. “Any fair-minded man cannot tail to admit that, the dairy farmer never before has enjoyed the same socuritwand I standard of comfort as he experiences to-day! There can lie no : simpler test I .than this: AVhnt would have happened had there been no guaranteed price, and had the dairy farmer been left to the mercy of market fluctuations? Expressed in pounds of butterfat monthly, the bui/terfat payments would have ranged from KTfd to,7fd per lb. Under the Labour Government’s Guaranteed Price svstem, which applied for the first time during that season, many butter manufacturing companies paid a uniform payment of llld per pound of buffer fat each month. The companies ultimately paid out an average price for the season of over 13Id per lb. for-but-terfat. The Government, is anxious to have accurate information, and it invites the renresentative organisations and groups of the dairy "farmers to-submit reliable farm cost figures. There is no desire on the Government’s part to do' other than live up fully to its price-fix-ing formula, which actually takes account of farm costs. ' Tf farmers think that they can get a fairer price by giving their evidence as to costs to a tribunal with a Supreme Court Judge as president, then the Government will not turn down this pronoss!.*’