THE GUARANTEED PRICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23810, 11 November 1940, Page 10

THE GUARANTEED PRICE

Sir. —I road your leading article m last Friday's Hbhald and wish to tbatik von for it. The farmers are not getting a fair deal from tlifc Labour Government through Mr. Nash. Mr. G. Hinton Knowles says that during the last war consumers had to pay .'is per lb. for butter in sojrno cases. This is quite incorrect. It was in the 1920-21. season tliat butter was at its highest, and the price over the counter then was 2s (id locally. The prices to farmers, 'covering the war years and up to 1920-21, were: 1914-16, 12.7(5(1; 1915-16, lo.O.'kl; 191(5-17, 18.(iod: 191718, 18/57 d; 1918-19, 18.67 d; 1919-20, 1<).1 lid; 1920-21. 29.00 d. During tho war the British Government bought the butter as it is, doing now, but the tlien Government left the dairy companies to handle their own business. The British Government bought for the duration of the war and one year after. The year of the highest prices was the first year it was tree again. The so-called guaranteed price we are getting now has. been the same for the past two seasons, and now we are asked tft' accept the same pr'ce again, and costs have been steadily mounting since before the war began, and have risen sharply ot late on lots of lines which affect only the farmers. It is well known to the dairying industry that tho Government is not paying out all it is getting from the Home Government for the butter. The dairy industry pays the f.o.b. costs, not the Government. The Government is a selfappointed go-between and takes for itself tho difference between what it pays us and what is received from the Home Government. The Home Government bears the cost from this country to England. „ The Public Service and the award workers have all received in some cases 5 per cent rises. Why shouldn't the farmer and. the i'arm worker receive the same treatment ? They work considerably longer hours for much less pay, and dairy farming is a seasonal occupation really, just as freezing works occupations are. Mr. Arthur N. .Tamieson pleads for unity of effort and sacrifice. It seems that" the unity and sacrifice is expected to come mainly from the farming confmunity. Mr. Nash says we will have more money because we are working harder and "having a better season. We had a better season until a few days ago, but we are at tho mercy of the weather —-a good spring may be followed b.v a dry summer, and autumn floods and perhaps to cap tlio lot caterpillars to eat the grass after the floods have messed up the grass and a man's fences to boot. And don't forget that flood damage is not allowed on taxation papers as repairs or maintenance. It is regarded by our benevolent Govern- | ment as capital expenditure evidently. 1 Cow Cockey.