"DISAPPOINTING.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 232, 31 August 1937, Page 2

"DISAPPOINTING.”

OPPOSITION LEADER’S VIEW.

Per Press Association

INVERCARGILL, Aug. 30

Reference to the new guaranteed price was made by the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Adam Hamilton, in an address at Wyndham to-night.' “There is no doubt but that the price will be very disappointing to dairyfarmere,” said Mr Hamilton. “In my opinion there is no other class in the community who have to work ho hard and long for their money as the dairyfarmer.

“It would be interesting to know what actual wage a- dairy-farmer was allowed iri the .computation of the price. The law says that the dairyfarmer is to be given a reward equal to other sections of the’community. It is; now easy to understand why there have beyn so many dairy-farmers in Southland selling their dairy herds. “The price given mav allow the dairyfa.rmer to get' what Air J. Roberts, of the. Federation of Labour, calls a “fodder” ' standard. The system is an impossible one. The market price of butter and cheese, according to the law, is not taken into account in arriving at the price to be paid. For many years the Labour Party has stated that the price received for our produce overseas should have n roc tically no bearing or our standard of living. Now it is endeavouring to put that idea into practice: To most of us the price received for our produce overseas has a mightly important influence on the New Zealand standard of living. ’“lt would seem, however, that the standard of living of other sections of the community was not the determining factor in setting the price for the dairy-farmer. Consider the- shee|>farmer’s standard and the wage and salary standard. Let me quote a few figures front the Government’s own statistics to show the position as at May, 1937. Taking as a basis, wages are up 74 per cent., wool up 91 per cent., meat up 641 per cent., dairy produce tip 8 per cent. It is not hard to judge from these figures liow the dairy-farmers are .faring in the economic life of New Zealand. The present rise in the guaranteed price will

•iviim out over all at about 7 per cent. The dairy-farmer will therefore be well below the average standard. One wonders if the smallness of the rise is partly due to the Government's desire to keep the price of butter and cheese as low as possible on the local market. .Has the dairy-farmer, therefore, got to work a.t almost the pre-war standard or for al>out 70 hours a week at tenpence an hour to give cheap buttei' to the re6t of the community who are on a standard over 50 per cent, above that levef?

“The solution lies not in guaranteeing artificial standards but in adjusting our standards from the farm instead of to the farm.”