CRITICAL STATE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3438, 3 March 1932, Page 5

CRITICAL STATE

N.Z. PRIMARY PRODUCERS. MEASURES DISCUSSED.

.That the rate of exchange should not be fixed and that there should be a 20 per cent, reduction on fixed charges, including interest are requests to be made to the Government as to outcome of a meeting at Palmerston North on Monday called to discuss problems and difficulties confronting the primary producers of the Dominion, and ways and means of alleviating them. The conference was convened jointly by the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce, the Dairy Farmers' Union, and the executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union. Mr. N. Campbell presided, while Messrs. W. J. Poison, M.P., president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, B. P. Fitzherbert, of Wellington; H. Seifert, of Palmerston North; and M. H. Oram, president of the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce, spoke. The discussion centred on free exchange, a 20 per cent, reduction in fixed charges, including interest, the 10 per cent, cut in wages, further State economies, the deficit, finance, and the setting up of a permanent body to advise the Government on financial matters.

"The meeting has been called now because we feel that the situation has become so critical that a further delay in coping with it may lead to national disaster," said Mr. Campbell.

"The present position of farming is dangerous. If it gets worse, or even if it fails to get better, we will soon be face to face with national disaster. What we are aiming at is to prevent that disaster while there is still time left for us to do so.

"Let us face facts. A huge gap has developed between our costs and our export prices. Our only salvation lies in closing that gap. One way in which the gap could be closed is for export prices to rise, and that would be one way every one of us would prefer above all others, but it would be economic madness to sit still and gamble on the chance of their rising. The economic situation in England and Europe is so bad that there does not seem to be any chance of an early recovery. Therefore we have to try and save ourselves by closing that gap which is ruining us all, country and town alike. "The suggestions we are placing before you aim at closing the gap, partly by raising the New Zealand value of our exports, and partly by lowering our costs." Mr. Poison dealt with the question of exchange, and advocated free exchange, and Mr. Herman Seifert spoke on farming costs. At the conclusion of the addresses a resolution was passed supporting the first two suggestions of the national plan, a free exchange, and a 20 per cent, reduction in fixed charges, including interests. Other matters were held over for a later meeting.