"PIRATING BILL"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22406, 30 April 1936, Page 13

"PIRATING BILL"

ATTACK BY MR. COATES ADAPTATION FROM RUSSIA ANALYSIS OF PROPOSALS ADVICE TO THE FARMERS [by TELEGRAPH SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON, Wednesday " The bill to give effect to tho Government's policy of guaranteed prices has been introduced under the title of the Primary Products Marketing Bill," said the fit. Hon. J. G. Coates (Opposition —Kaipara), who followed the Minister of Finance, Hon. W. Nash, in the second reading debate on the bill in the House of Representatives to-night. " Actually the Minister of Finance would have been well advised to pay more attention to alliteration and call his bill the Primary Products Pirating Bill. The implications of tho measure are such that it will mean political piracy on a stupendous scale." The proposals in the bill, Mr. Coates continued, were not the proposals put before tho electors last year. The famous pamphlet published by the Minister of Finance did not disclose anything nearly as drastic as the provisions for bulk State purchase revealed in the bill. The Labour Party might have received a mandate to pay a guaranteed price for dairy produce, but it certainly did not receive a mandate to take over the whole of the country's produce at a price which it would fix for itself. The Canadian Wheat Pool Mr. Nash had shown in his pamphlet that ever a number of years butter had varied 111 price from 230s to 64s per cwt. and had attributed the variation to the activities of clever manipulators, said Mr. Coates. The variation was simply the natural result of world fluctuations in supply and demand. Another point made by Mr. Nash was that guaranteed prices were in operation in other countries. It was true that some countries were guaranteeing returns to producers, but the general aim was to encourage the production of goods needed for home consumption and not for export. That was a vastly different matter. Mr. Nash had openly referred to the operations of the Canadian wheat pool as disastrous and yet 110 was advocating the operation of a similar scheme for New Zealand dairy produce. "The Minister's pamphlet has been varied to suit the purposes of the bill," Mr. Coates continued. " The Government has astutely returned to its original policy of bulk purchase. As far as the dairy industry is concerned it is providing absolutely for the socialisation of production, distribution and exchange, Tho ultimate aim is bulk purchase and bulk barter, but the Government will not come out into the open and say so. "The Socialist Ideal" "The whole scheme must lead to complete ownership of all products by the State itself. It is but an adaptation of the Russian system and represents in effect the socialist ideal." The taking over of ownership and control of dairy produce, Mr. Coates said, meant that insurmountable barriers were bQing placed in the way of individual effort, tenacity and enterprise. The Government could talk of planned production, both primary and secondary, but it was not abreast of the position. The importance of exports was being entirely overlooked. The present receipts from that source were about £45.000,000 to £50,000,000 a year and nothing should be done which might interfere with that source.

Another important point was that internal prices closely followed export prices.

The question of distribution of foodstuffs to pcopk) in want was also touched on by Mr. Coates. There was no reason, he said, why surpluses over and above normal market requirements should not be used in this direction both here and overseas. New Zealand had already made undertaking along those lines. Tho dost of Guarantees By deciding to fix a guaranteed price f.o.b. and to announce it by Order-in-Council at the start of next season, the Government was keeping the dairy industry in the dark, said Mr. Coates. During the election campaign there had been much talk of a guaranteed price of Is 3d per lb., but it appeared that the Government was hedging on that point and would not go beyond Is Id per lb. If last year's average price of Is was maintained the cost to the Government of a guarantee of Is 3d would be £4,500,000; at Is Id per lb. the Government would have to find a difference of £1,750,000 "In no sense can I possibly agree with this radical and untried experiment," Mr. Coates continued. "If the farmers of this country take my advice they will have nothing to do with the Government's proposals. They would be wise men to keep their future in their own hands, to meet the world's market and make the best of it. If the price to be fixed is to bo Is Id. I would say that the world market warrants a better price. "I want to state very distinctly and very clearly that every member on this side of the House, as far as the forms of tho House will permit, will oppose every inch of the way this socialisation of the dairy industry."