REQUEST BY FARMERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 23 March 1945, Page 4

REQUEST BY FARMERS

INCREASED RETURN FOR PRODUCE Dunedin, March 22. “Now that the door is open for wholesale revision of awards, the farmer in common justice has a right to ask for an increased return for his produce,” said Mr W. Lee. president of the Otago Provincial Council of the Farmers’ Union, and Mr A. C. Leary, chairman of the Otago Primary Production Council, in a joint statement issued in regard to the recent wage pronouncement. “Farmers do not forget that increased prices for New Zealand produce were paid by the British Government specifically to increase production, but the New Zealand Government refused to pass on the increase because of stabilisation. “This excuse no longer applies,” the statement added. “We have the greatest sympathy with the man with a family who has endeavoured to jnake ends meet on a wage approximating £5. but we believe adjustments could have been made to meet the needs of the man with children without departing from the general principle of stabilisation. “A vicious cycle must now commence and it is difficult to say where it will stop. All costs will soar. The effect on manufacturing and building costs of the fortnight's paid holiday, which has added approximately 6 . per * cent, to all stages of production costs and not less than 10 per cent, on the finished article, will serve to illustrate the result of one small wage increase, for undoubtedly that is what a paid holiday has amounted to.”—P.A.