GUARANTEED PRICES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 30 March 1938, Page 9

GUARANTEED PRICES

. ITo The Editor! j Sir,—Wc hear from time to time of j how the present Government saved the i situation as far as the dairy farmer is concerned. For this season the Hon. Mr Nash guarantees 13d per lb for finest butte:*, yet a local factory pays out for the season 11 id per lb for finest but-ter-fat (not butter). Taking IOOIbs buttcr-fat producing 1201bs of butter, you will see wc are receiving nowhere i near the guaranteed price that the Hon. (Minister brags about. The lljd per lb is for finest butter-fat; first grade is id per lb less, and second grade is still 2d i per lb less again. So you see if a dairy j farmer supplies lOOOlbs of second I ' grade cream, he is penalised 2£d per lb :or more than £lO. Of course at the j end of the season the dairy farmer gets i | what is called a bonus. Some consider this a gift, but I say it is his own money held by the factory for the season, interest free, and distributed in a lump sum, no interest added, to bluff the dairy farmer, so that he will keep going for the following season. Then again he may get a bonus of Id per lb butterfat, or he may not get a bonus at all. A lot depends on how the factory is managed Now someone will say the dairy farmer shouldn’t have second grade cream, but there are hundreds getting second grade, in spite of the fact that . every care is taken regarding cleanlij ness, and the milking machines are , sterilised each day. The former Gov- ’ ernment talked of putting the unemj ployed over the fence; the present Govt ernment is putting the farmer over the ! fence onto the road, that is why with’j in a radius of five miles from here, there are several farmers working on * * the road. The road brings in more revenue than the farm, and the farms are > deteriorating rapidly. We are nearing another election, and yet the farmer that was placed under a stay order by • the previous Government is still under that stay order, and he is not getting the £5 10s per week that the Hon. Minister of Finance says he gets. But the J next election will call their bluff.—l J am. etc., s PRODUCTION. Motueka 271 h March.