POOREST PAID PRODUCERS.

Northern Advocate, 24 September 1919, Page 6

POOREST PAID PRODUCERS.

BUTTER EQUALISATION SCHEME

OPERATES INEQUITABLY

isiti MaNDEic'S VIEWS

SpeuKiug in the House of Representatives on a question which he had put upon the Order Paper # Mr F. Mander M.P. for Marsden, said that

the equalisation fund in connection | with butter, referred to in his question, had caused a great deal of dissatisfaction in the North, and no doubt all over the country. The seotlers who had spoken to him in regard to ch e matter would not have complained but for the fact that the rich as well as the poor were benefited at their expense—they did not object to the poor people gaining a an advantage; the advantage was universal. Wealthy publicans and boardinghouse-keepers had the advantage, and the butter-producers— the poorest-paid peopl e in the community—considered it very unfair. Why should the price of butter be regulated Whilst the price of everything bought and used by the butterproducers had gone up enormously. Buttermaker3 were, undoubtedly the hardest-worked portion of the farm ing community of the Dominion, and ali the others got oif scot-free. Everybody knew that the dairy-farmers worked long hours, and they were not getting the price it cost them to produce the butter. It was stated ihat it formerly cost 1/7J to produce a pound of butter, whilst the cost now had " gone up to 2/ —certainly not less. H e believed if the farmers and their familes were paid arbitration wages for the work they were doing on the farms, and time and a quarter for all overtime worked on the farms, then butter would cost to produce 3/ a pound instead of 2/ a 3 at th e present time. Everything the farmer used had gone up to excessive prices. Manures had risen to such an extent as to almost prohibit their use with the result that the country settler would find a fallingaway in his total product; that would b e inevitable with the existing high cost of manures. In the absence of manures they would not be able to produce the amount of food necessary. Bonedujt) hadj (risen to £17 a ton—2/ per pound—almost as dear as oatmeal. The majority of the farmers could not, unless it was absolutely necessary, afford to buy manures at those prices. They had to wear clothes, boots, keep their harnes 3 in repair, and with all their farming requisites at enhanced prices. Everything they used had gone up enormously. It was certainly unfair that they should be singled out and their commodity regulated as to price, whilst the commodities produced by other farmers, such as beef, mutton, "Glaxo,"' cheese, etc., brought the ordinary market rates. The whole regulation fell on the buttermakers He could not understand Why the butter-farm-er should be the only one who was picked out under regulation. Mr Young.—The butter producers work the hardest and earn the least.

Mr Mander.—Yes; they work harder than any other producers in the country. Last year was so dry in the North that any profit they made in previous years disappeared. Many of them lost their cows. In on e case that came under my notice, out of a herd of forty-three cows no fewer than forty perished. The man had absolutely no food on hi s place in consequenc e of the dry weather.

Mr Young.—Did the rabbits take it?

Mr Mande r replied that it was the drought. The cows were coming in so poor this . year that th c output would be very much reduced, and it was a great hardship to single out the dairy-farmer in the manner referred to. It was only fair that the equalisation fund should be taken out of the.consolidated revenue.