DAIRY PRODUCTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 18 June 1936, Page 6

DAIRY PRODUCTS

GUARANTEED PRICE TIME NOT OPPORTUNE TO DISCLOSE STATEMENT BY HON. W. NASH (By Telegraph—Press Association) HASTINGS, This Day. A statement that the guaranteed price for dairy products would be fixed at a fraction above the most generous maximum price based on the average for the past eight to ten years was made by the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. Walter Nash, when addressing the National Dairy Conference at Hastings. i The objective of the Government, said Mr Nash, was to remove fear of price falls and the ecstasy of price rises. Referring to the present rising price level for butter on the London market, Mr Nash said the position showed the necessity for watching the market with the utmost care. Actually there had been a fall of 1 per cent in butter imports into Britain, but that had resulted in an increase of 18 per cent in prices. Another point of importance was that the retail price had been more or less stabilised at about Is a pound. If once the price went much above Is the demand for the product immediately decreased. “We have discussed the possibility of making the guaranteed price known,” said Mr NaSh, “but we have decided for various reasons that the time is not quite opportune. However, when the price is known to the farmer the value of his land will be determined. “If the old procedure follows,” continued the Minister, “and it will not if I can avoid it, every rise of Id in the price will be added to the land. H the farmer who sells his land gets more for it than he ought to get I would take every penny off him I could. We want to see no charge on the land other than that charge which can he sustained by the price which \y e are prepared to pay.”