THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1939 DAIRY PRICE DICTATE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23470, 6 October 1939, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1939 DAIRY PRICE DICTATE

Mr. Nasii has dictated the prices to be paid by the Government for dairy produce in the current season, the rates being the same as last year. Those for butter are 20s 9d per cwt. below the maximum fixed by the British Government on September 25, the last published London quotation. In dictating the price, Mr. Nash does not state on what basis it has been lixed. Farmers have a right to know, even if Mr. Nash does not go through the form of consulting them or taking any expert advice from the industry. After all the farmers produce the goods. In announcing the price, Mr. Nash should also have informed farmers' at what price the British Government is purchasing their butter and cheese. He should tell them now —at once. He asks for the farmers' co-operation, but should not expect it to be given blindly. Intelligent co-opcration follows from knowledge of the facts. Farmers are like everyone else —they work better in the open than in the dark. Mr. Nash also calls for maximum production, but provides no inducement. Against higher costs, ho offers the same iirice as that fixed last year, a price which was below the officially ascertained costs of production at that time and at which production decreased by 11 per cent or 19,375 tons, falling to the lowest level for seven years. As part of the Dominion's war effort, Mr. Lee Martin has appealed for an increased output of butter this season to help make up an anticipated shortage in British supplies from foreign sources of 70,000 tons. The question is whether the price dictated by Mr. Nash is going to help in reaching a most desirable result.

The farmers are fully willing to do their part, and have a right to expect that they will be granted a reasonable return for their labour and effort. If they knew that the British Government found itself unable to offer more than 124s 3d per cwt. for their produce, they might be willing as their contribution to the struggle to work to that price. But they do not know that. What they do know is. that the last London quotation was 145s and that Mr. Nash is commandeering their produce at 124s 3d. To leave the business at that uncertain stage is not the way to enlist co-operation, kindle effort and increase production. Moreover, the price dictated is the same as that arbitrarily fixed by Mr. Nash last year at a level involving the farmers in an aggregate loss estimated at over £1,200,000. It will be remembered that the price unanimously recommended by the official advisory committee was arbitrarily reduced by Mr. Nash by .87d per lb butterfat. Last season's cut is to be applied again this season. The price then was placed .87d per lb. below the .ascertained costs of production and costs have risen sharply since August of last year. Mr, Nash is making no allowances for these increases, for many of which the Government is directly responsible. Transport costs have been raised by adding 10 per cent to the railway tariff and 4d to petrol tax; rates have been affected by the new demands made on hospitals ; income and social security taxes make deeper inroads; customs increases have affected the cost of living ; the general price level is higher; factory costs have advanced sharply; the war brings another inflationary influence to bear. Mr. Nash does not make any allowances. He commandeers the produce at the old price, pays the farmers in depreciating Reserve Bank notes, and appropriates the good sterling they have earned.

Farmers are not receiving a fair deal. They cannot be blamed if they feel a burning sense of injustice. They are neither consulted concerning the price nor told on what basis it has been fixed. Mr. Nash's dictate is as absolute as that issued to German farmers by the Nazi Ministry of Economics. Yet New Zealand is supposed to be joined with the Empire in the struggle against that sort of political and economic tyranny. In Germany, of course, it is applied to the workers as well. Plere the method is reserved for traders and farmers. Mr. Webb has gravely informed Parliament that he could not for a moment attempt to influence the Arbitration Court's decision on wages. Such an attempt would be "most improper." The workers receive a fair hearing before a judicial tribunal and obtain an impartial award. But not the farmers. They have to accept Mr. Nash's say-so on the price of their labour. In effect their wages are dictated by the - Government employer. If the procedure would be "most improper" in the case of the worker, why should the farmer bo forced to accept it? If an attempt were made to subject the worker to such high-handed dictation, would it succeed? The Government should earnestly consider these questions. After all, its aim and the aim of every good New Zealandcr is to reinforce the Empire's war effort to the utmost, and particularly in the Dominion's case, to increase production. That end will not be forwarded by adopting dictatorial methods in what has been a free community. In the case of the dairy farmer, he should be told the basis on which his price has been fixed and lie should be satisfied that in all the circumstances it is a fair and reasonable basis. In that way—and it is the only way in a democracy—the Government will obtain full co-operation and a productive result worthy of the Empire's dairy farm.