THE OLD AND THE NEW

Matamata Record, Volume XX, Issue 1855, 2 August 1937, Page 4

THE OLD AND THE NEW

GUARANTEED PRICE • v • i ’ < ■' ’ Hinuera Chairman’s View • This is the first year we have worked urider the guaranteed price,’.’ stated Mr. J. E. West, chairman of, the Hinuera Dairy Company, in his annual address to suppliers on Thursday. Continuing, he said the system of dairy* Companies selling their own produce—vieing with each other to secure the best payout —had been completely displaced. The Government now took over the butter at a stated -price as”'it was placed aboard ship and much, of the directors’ pleasure had been taken out of the game in not being allowed to “try and beat the other fellow.” This was, of course, of no consideration if a new and improved method of disposing of butter had been found. Whether or not they believed in the principle of guaran-

teeing a price for products; irrespective of world prices, they had-to admit that the price this year had been satisfactory, but whether it was better ..than it would have been under the old sybtem was open to question. The increased price due to shorter hours and higher wages was now being felt, and they had to look for higher costs both;!in the factory and on the farm for the coming year. A further in-crease-in the guaranteed price would be necessary to give the farmer a fair return. Especially would the farmer on the partly improved farm find; this the case for posts, iron, wire, fliachinery, and many other items would, cost him far more. ■

OPPOSED TO PRINCIPLE " I am opposed to the guaranteeing of prices as being wrong in principle,’’ he said, “ but once the system has been introduced we can only wait and see how it will eventually work out. The late Government introduced the system in the south with wheat growers, and the whole country had been penalised ever since to benefit a very small setion. One of the advantages of the guaranteed price is the fact that we get an early clean up for the season, and the farmer gets his bonus at the time of the year that he needs it most, although the Hinuera company has* always made a point of trying to get cleaned up by the annual meeting by making, if possible, a few f.o.b. sales.

“A NEW ORDER” “ During the last year or two conditions ■ generally have changed very much; in fact, are still rapidly changing towards a new order of things. During the changing process many new problems have to be faced W’hich call for very serio.us consideration and true co-operation. As dairyfarmers and the principal primary producers of the country we must be careful that w-e do not lose our identity and become pawns in the, game, to be moved and played with at the whim of politicians.”