PRIMARY PRODUCERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 305, 23 November 1945, Page 4

PRIMARY PRODUCERS

SUBSIDIES FROM OWN MONEY. (Press Assn.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 22 Speaking to the report of the Marketing Department in the House of Representatives today, Mr W. Sullivan (Nat., Bay of Plenty) said that time had come when long-term contracts should be entered into with the United Kingdom for New Zealand’s produce. ‘ He went on to say that the accounts showed there were surpluses of £14,255,428, which, he said, belonged to the primary producers of the country. He ' contended that whatever had been paid out to the primary producers had been paid from the producers’ own account. The meat industry had paid £BBB,OOO on fertilisers, the dairy industry £2,766,000 on fertilisers, and altogether there had been paid in subsidies £4,125,000. In addition the primary producers had paid a subsidy of £300,000 a year to the consumers of meat, £500,000 on butter, and a very large amount on wool. He did not want to advocate an increase in the cost of living, but if there was any other industry manufacturing something for the people its subsidy would be paid from the War Expenses Account, as was the subsidy on coal. The unfair treatment of the producers by the Government was partly responsible, he held, for the drift from the country to the towns. The Minister of Marketing (Mr Roberts) said the drift of population was accounted for by.-the fact that the introduction of machinery to primary production had made some of the population on the land unnecessary. He quoted the Prime Minister as saying that the balances in the meat accounts to the industry. Mr Sullivan: What about the Dairy Industry Account ? Mr Roberts quoted figures showing that during the war the total fertiliser subsidy was £4,750,000, of which the War Expenses Account found £L--293,000. The stock food subsidy was £52,000, .the War Expenses Account finding £42,500. The subsidy paid 'to the Ministry of Supply in connection with far:)iing was £135,000, the War Expenses Account providing £20,000. Mi Roberts said he hoped that the figures he had given would end once and for all the farmers’ complaint that they had paid their own subsidies.. .' ' ' /. V .