INADEQUATE PRICE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 15 April 1944, Page 4

INADEQUATE PRICE

NEW BITTER-FAT RATE NORTHERN FARMERS’ VIEWS Whangarei. April 13. “If farming is to be restored to its rightful status in the economy of New Zealand, the townspeople of the Dominion must be made to realise the national importance of the said Mr A. Briscoe Moore, president of the Whangarei sub-provincial executive of the Farmers’ Union, at the annual meeting to-day. Mr Moore said that farmers should be encouraged and assisted in this country as in Britain, but the reverse was actually the case, while the Government had seen fit to promote contentious legislation aimed against the farmer. “Irrespective of what a farmer may think of the price that he is receiving for his produce, his great thought should be that food production is vital for Britain/’ said Mr Moore. The meeting passed a resolution protesting against the inadequate price, even with the increase, for butterfat and pigmeat. Mr Scott Davidson said that the price for prime pigmeat was 2d per lb below that paid in Australia. The price in New Zealand was not sufficient to promote increased production. Mr Simmonds said that the farmer was receiving, even with the increase, one penny per lb less for butterfat than in the final years of the last war. while farm costs had increased by over 40 per cent. Under those conditions the increase now offered farmers was quite inadequate to place him on the same footing as other industry. Mr .T. Stephens said thea basis of assessing farm costs was false. Costs were based on a production per cow of 2501 b of butterfat a year, about 501 b more than the average cow in New Zealand did produce.