GUARANTEED PRICE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32311, 10 September 1943, Page 5

GUARANTEED PRICE

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Mr Fraser told us the cost of living in New Zealand was the lowest of all the Allied countries' and one wondered how the Labour Government could pat themselves on the back for this achievement, seeing it has been brought about by keeping the primary producers down to ’39 levels, whilst their costs, are ’43 levels. The Minister of Finance told us that in Washington beef steak cost 4s lb., butter 4s lb. U.S.A. currency. Major Skinner told us the English dairyfarmers were getting 2s per gallon for their milk, sterling. The poultrykeepers in Australia are paid Is 10d for their flush s°?son’s eggs where fowl wheat, costs 3s 6d per bushel and rv , ‘" , e ? ? bushel. Our rrice as fixed by the Labour Government is: Country

storekeepers, Is 5d dozen; maize Osbushel, wheat > 10 s bushel (country storekeepers’ prices). When the Liberty Loan was blazoned over the air ,the primary producers- of the Waikato and Thames Valley failed to reach their qupta and were branded by their city cousins as unpatriotic. The truth was they were so hard up they had nothing to lend.

Mr Hill is living in hopes of getting Is 6d per lb. for this season’s butterfat. He will need it, and some, with the price of commodities rising every day (when procurable). I Was charged lid for lib. of fencing staples this week. >

I notice Mr Hill refers to the leader of the National Party as “Sid” and the Minister of Finance as “Mr” Nash. '-There was a time when ardent Labour supporters like Mr Hill called him l Walter, but that was before he grabbed the dual positions of Minister of Finance and New Zealand Ambassador to Washington. We are fighting for freedom: Let’s get a bit of it right here.—l am, etc., L. DURMAN. Netherton, Sept. 8, 1943.