GUARANTEED PRICE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 30 June 1939, Page 6

GUARANTEED PRICE

DAIRY CONFERENCE DISCUSSION PROTEST SUGGESTED lUnited Picks Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. Ihe fixation of tlie guaranteed price for the coming dairying season at the figure ipcommended by the Price Advisory Com. mittee last, year was advocated yesterday by the National Dairy Conference in Wellington. A suggestion that unless farmers were giveu a guaranteed price satisfactory to item, they should resort to “passive resist ence" by uot paying their taxes was made by Mr W. Harbutt, Cambridge, mover of the remit, which initiated the discussion. i'he remit was that the conference r.ould eudorse the resolution passed at the Dominion Dairy Board Conference, asking that the guaranteed price for 1939-40 be that recommended by the Price Ad- ' isorv Committee for 1938-39. This remit os carried. Discussion, however, of what ..ction dairy companies should take if the • >overnment did not accede to the request ••as deferred. Many would remember the aunouncement of the first price fixtures under the Daily Marketing Act, said Mr Harbutt. Lven then, it was accepted with apprehenIbe feeling current then, as to day, " as that the price was fixed at the beginning of the season, and the costs of manufacture were added after the price fixation and in a great many instances were made j etrospective. This had been the proi fdure since the guaranteed price had been i.i existence. The Minister, in asking primary producers to accept last year’s prices, was not acting up to the promises nnd context of his own Act. “Farmers must have a fairer share of I he distribution of their efforts, aud must have their costs reduced,” lie said. Wages eaunot rise for ever, nor can the guaranteed price. “We as producers are entitled to a fair return for our efforts. Labour also is entitled to a fair reward at all times. Business, too, is entitled to its fair return. But if business docs not get its return, up go 1 hi prices; if labour does not get its share it goes on strike—down tools. “Since the. farmer cannot regulate his prices, but must accept an arbitrary price, which does not cover his needs, why should not he strike? He cannot, for obvious reasons, but one thing lie can do, and that is, by passive resistance to taxation, show his protest. I say the time is ripe for this to he seriously considered by (he conference.

“As you know, action i s lequired at times in a nation’s existence. We know well enough the amount of money that has to be raised to-day, and we know that interest will have to be paid. Your costs are going up, and the life-blood of our nation is going to be taxed away. Ours is the section of the community that will have to bear the burden. “I h ave suggested passive resistance to the payment of taxation. It is the only remedy you have got ; but if you undertake it, you must be sure you are coming out all right.” Mr Harbutt suggested that should the farmers’ position be further jeopardised, either financially or by added costs, a Dominion meeting of primary producers in Wellington should he convened by the Farmers’ Union, New Zealand Dairy Board and National Dairy Federation, to decide what action should be taken. Everyone would agree that the guaranteed price was only a Court of Arbitration agreement as far as the former vas concerned, said Mr Campbell Smith, seconding the motion. If it was a Court of Arbitration award it was the only one in the world where a man had to work seven day week. It was also the only award which stipulated that a man must be efficient before be could be paid. An award to come shortly before the Court of Arbitration would, if it went through, greatly increase the burden on the industry, said Mr Ferguson, Maungaturoto. Any price paid for the farmers’ produce must be such as would repay him for the cost of production, and also reward him for his labours. If this were not done, the Minister of Marketing would be placing a special tax on the primary producer. It was suggested that the increase in costs was not able to be computed accurately, but the increase in freight t barges was an ascertainable increase fn costs to the industry, and many other costs were equally ascertainable. As a result of farmers not receiving equal recognition to other branches of the community doing equal service, much land would go out of production.