Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 31 March 1938, Page 6

Readers Write

Since A. and P. shows were first started, young people have been ox-| pected to compete against adults off many years’ ex-1 perience. Now, I anyone who gives | this matter a | little thought can see that this is f most unfair to young people. This is | specially noticed in the baking sec-| tioh. The children are catered for, also | the women, but for the girls from 14 i up to, we will say, 22, nothing done; they must take their chance | against experienced women. . ■ ♦ If an intermediate section was put! on. all girls would have an equal t chance. Also, they would not mind? competing in a section of their own. | The born cook can do well with short] experience. All girls are not born j .cooks, yet, with practice and encour-j agement, oven they could lake a top i place in a section of their own. Com-1 petition in a friendly spirit encour-j ages them to do their best, and a bet-1 ter class of cooking results. With a| view to helping the young people, my i branch sent a letter to the Waiotiraj Show Committee asked them to put on j an intermediate section for the girls] at their last show, baking, needlework j and flowers to be included in the sec- ] tion. Nothing was done in the mat-| ter. All I have heard was that girls« of eighteen should be able to cook asj well as experienced women. Possibly j many can, but there are always some j who can’t, and by having their own i section, it would greatly benefit the] more inexperienced ones. The extra | i interest taken would also benefit the j show. The young people certainly de-| serve more encouragement and better ] treatment than they have been get-i ting. This does not only apply to one section. To expect the children to compete against the older girls is just as unfair as it' is to'expect the girls to compete against experienced women. Yet the children’s section was put up to 18 years. Why discourage the young people who would otherwise help make the show a success, when a little more thought could gx-eatly improve everything?—-M. PORTER (Hon, secretary, Maungakaramea W.D.F.U.). At Ithe outset, I would like to comment upon the remarks made by one who signs himself “Anti-Humbug,” in which he says he thinks I believe the guaranteed price scheme is a good thing. I will go further, and say I know it is a good thing, and I know there are thousands who think likewise. If your correspondent was . a “cow cockie” he would probably think so, too—his politics prevent him from developing his bump of fair play. If Messrs Coates and Co. had introduced it, be would probably be extolling its virtues today. Now, regarding the returns for the three months in which this correspondent quotes the price our butter output brought in England (without freight deducted, etc.), I might be given for inquiring why previous correspondents did not base their arguments on these three months’ figures. The reason was that they knew if they based their argument on the price received during August, September and October of this year, I could just as easily have pointed out that for these months of the previous year the price was approximately lOd. We received 1/14. I could also, have pointed to the deficit in the Dairy Account last year. I could also have gone back yet another year, when the price was 93d, for a whole year—exactly what the guaranteed price set out to rectify. Would any reasonable man reject the scheme, remembering the past events? They also knew that the figures would go to prove that the marketing of our produce was in good hands, as the price has been consistently closer to Danish than ever before (Danish advanced 6 per cent., New Zealand 9 per cent.). This correspondent makes a great fuss about 5000 tons of butter being in England (which I doubt) when the price was 150/-. However, if 5000 tons of butter were dumped on the market in one, lot, how long would the price have remained at 150/-? How long did it last, as it was? About a week! This is exactly what used to happen in the bad old days, when the price used to drop to 60/-. The Labour Party promised farmers a price which will give them about 1/2 this year, a time when butter was bringing lOd. Could they have known that the price in England would advance? Herein lies the security of the scheme, and the reason farmers will Support it, at least until something better turns up. A minimum price of 1/- will hardly do, however, even if the Farmers’ Union care to call it a compensated price. I noticed in the press the other day that butter is the only thing remaining steady in price. What happens, may I ask, when it starts to. fall in price with all other commodities?. Farmers, I think, know the answer, as long as the guaranteed price remains, which is the reason the farmers of Taranaki and Waikato’ Were not perturbed when the price ‘ touched 150/for a week or so this year. • “REFORM.”

HINT TO SHOW EXECUTIVES.

GUARANTEED PRICE.