PREMIER AND FARMERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18341, 6 March 1923, Page 8

PREMIER AND FARMERS.

RETAIL PRICE OF BUTTER. REPLY TO CRITICISM. / ■ WORK FOR COUNTRY AT LARGE. The statement made at To Puke by }Jlt. R. D. Duxfield, provincial president of the Farmers' Union, that tho Prime Minister had been responsible for cutting down the retail price of butter, was criticised yesterday by Mr. Massey. The Prime Minister said he was inclined to think that very few people took Mr. Duxfield seriously, or considered him a representative farmer. "My actions," continued' Mr. Massey, " speak for themselves, but there may be some people who i do not know Mr. Duxfield, and believe 1 everything they see in print. As a matter of fact, right through the war period, I ! gav», my best energies to securing to the producers the value of their produce, and j this was especially tho caso in connection with the dairy farmers. When war broke out, on account of scarcity of shipping, and especially tho fact that for many weeks at a time, it was impossible to get the dairy produco away from Now Zealand ports, the producers of butter and cheese were being exploited by speculators, and I advised them to make the best bargain possible with the Imperial Government, who thereby became responsible for providing ships. I personally conducted the negotiations and was at length successful in arranging what turned out to bo a very satisfactory transaction. On the first occasion when I was called away to England the Board of Trade in New Zealand arranged a tax on butter-fat so as to equalise the price as between tho butter that *vas shipped and the butter sold locally. I considered this a mistake, and on my return to the Dominion I recommended the National Cabinet to cancel the arrange* ment and to refund the tax on butter-fat which had been collected. This was done. "Again, when the Imperial Government put the, price up to 2s 6d per lb. I recommended Cabinet to subsidise the ! price which was being paid for local butter so that the producers got the London parity and tho local consumers obtained their supplies at a reasonable rate, which otherwise would not have been the case. i Right through the war period I made it my business to look after the supply of shipping for transport of our produce, ana thousands of telegrams passed between myself and the Ministry of Shipping in London; otherwise there would j have been serious congestion in New Zealand ports. I "In doing these things for the producers I was working for the country as a whole, and I expect no gratitude from men of the stamp of Messrs. Duxfield and Colbeck. It would seem that the more one does for such people the more intense is their hostility. As regards the question |of agricultural banks, the success of which has yet to bo proved, I think I am justified in claiming that the changes I have recently made in the State Advances Department and the added capital that has been arranged in conncction therewith, are many times better than anything in the nature of an • agricultural : bank could possibly be. My arrangements in this respect are intended to benefit the bona-fide farmers; the speculator can take care of himself. But it is to be regretted that the gentlemen referred to, it they are farmers at all, should devote their energies to misrepresentation and mudthrowing, instead of trying to benefit I their fellow-settlers."