LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17484, 31 May 1920, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE PRICE, OF,, BUTTER, N

* Sir,— support of the recent statement of Mr. Goodfellow, some of the following essential items may ( show the public how IhMost of producing batter has risen since 1914 .-—Land, principal item, risen up to 100 per cent and over labour, 100 per cent; machinery, 110 per cent; benaine, oyer 100 per cent; good cows, same: manures, double or more in cpJjt; building materials, 200 per cent; wire, up to 800 per cent. Taking everything on an average the rise wonld exceed 100 per cent in all. Yet the price to the butter producer in the last six years has risen in all about 25 per cent. Thus it is becoming impossible to produce butter to-day at present prices. The position over wheat will yet bo duplicated over butter, if the prices are not re-arranged; and also bacon, which was aJinost controlled out of existence in New Zealand. It is quito certain that no legislation can compel a farmer to continue producing one thing, such as butter, at a limited price, while cheese and dried milk show as .they do about four times the actual profit." .If there is not to be a butter famine the price must be' brought in lino to the producers, with the 100 per cent costs bring born to-day. The case for tho butter farmer is so clear and easily demonstrated that any rofufal to meet their just claims will very shortly re-act on those who oppose those claims. " .... Pabitt Price.

■ Sir,— should esteem it a favour if you would permit me to reply to Mr. Goodfellow's assertion, as stated in the Herald of the 24th inst.,. that the present price of butter, Is 8d per lb-retail, is absurdly low, and that the price .should bo raised to 2s Id. Speaking an a member of the largo class of consumers, I absolutely challenge Mr.' floodtdlow to prove his assertions, and if he thinks that ho can make good his argument, I trust •hat he will take the trouble to do'so. and thereby remove the very genuine suspicion of profiteering that exists in the mind of the bulk of the community in •regard to farmers. Undoubtedly, if Mr. Qoodfellow commences to prove his statements by unduly, inflating the valae of dairying land, and then endeavouring to show that the farmer is entitled to 6 per cent, per annum upon this inflated value, he will have no difficulty in 'proving his assertions, and ho would similarly have no difficulty in being able to show that butter should be 3s or even £3 per lb by the simple process -of increasing his inflated land values still further. "The true facts are. as Mr. Goodfellow cannot deny, that as the selling price of dairy produce rose in tho outside market*, such as Britain, during tho war. the so-called " value"—that is strictly speaking the price that any fanner could get some : other person to pay him for his dairying land rose also. The dairying farmers themselves in their blind desire to reap unearned increment have in many cases succeeded in purchasing land at such inflated values as necessitates many of them demanding 2s Id per lb for butter in order to pay interest upon their mortgages. ' Can Mr. Goodfellow or any other educated person show any valid reason why the whole community sh6uld be unduly taxed in order to permit dairy farmers periodically to retire and live at ease t upon the interest that they expect to receive from the man. to whom they sold their farms. No one denies tho right of every farmer to receive a good income from his land, but the present system by which every farm has to provide a living not only to the man who is working it, but also to the last two or three men who have owned it, is a system that cannot bo too strongly condomned. It means that the whole community is, so long as the artificial price of butter is maintained, condomned to support in at any rate partial idleness men whoso only claim to public gratitude is that they bought land cheap and sold -t dear. There is no doubt that if farmers persist in their present altitude, the day will shortly dawn when tho Government, will be unab'e to resist tho public demand for an embargo on all necessities of life until the local prices are reduced to a sensible level, and Mr. Goodfellow snd his friends will hate only themsolves to thank. If Mr. Goodfellow want* a few instances of land being doubled in price, though not in value, within a few months, I shall bo pleased to supply him with a long list, but his intimate knowledge of all matters pertaining to' dairying, can hardly permit him to bo ignorant of at least ten times more instance than I could give him. Recently such authorities as the Minister for Lands, the Prime Minister, Mr. Newton King, and manv others have been warning farmers against paving ton much for land, and if Mr. GoodMJow thinks that he can ward off the evil day by persuading the public to continue to pay an oxnrb'tant price for farm produce, he will find that -public opinion will be too strong even for the h"!?e combine of which ho is j so capable a director.

I state ewrthaticaly that thosa formers who are still dairying on tho l<md that thev owned 10 years ago, are better off to-day than thev have ever been, find are better off than trie majority of thfir countrymen, and 1 challenge Mr. Good fellow or anj ore elso to disprove th's assertion. CoNSTHBtt.