GUARANTEED PRICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22628, 20 July 1935, Page 18

GUARANTEED PRICES

TO THE EDITOR Sir —-The Labour Socialist Party proposes’ to guarantee the producer a payable price for his butter, meat, and wqol, and to resell the goods at market price. As the proposed guaranteed price is admittedly in excess of the market price, the loss will have to be made up by the people of New Zealand. To gain support for this policy, Labour speakers assert that guaranteed Prices already prevail in New Zealand, they point to the “ guaranteed price "paid to milk vendors by the Wellington municipality. This is not at all analogous, because the city, while giving a definite price for the milk, fixes its own selling ‘price to produce a’profit. This could not ' be done under the Labour Party s scheme , for the selling price is entirely beyond its control. ... Fixed taxi fares are put forward as another example, but this also is an entirely different matter. The mumber of taxis is limited by license. The scale ot fares is to protect the public, and in no case does the municipalityNguarantee the •

The purchase of Dominion produce during the war is equally wide of the mark, for the Imperial government, as purchaser at a stated price, was purchasing for its own use, not for export. •' / To represent the policy of guaranteed price as equivalent to tbe above instances is definitely to mislead the people.—We are etc N.Z. Welfare League. July 18.