MILK AND CREAM PRICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23205, 1 June 1937, Page 5

MILK AND CREAM PRICES

TO IHE EDITOR Sir. —I should like to thank the various speakers, especially Mr Robertson and Mr Hurst, at the meeting on May 28 for their outspoken remarks. Mr Munro, M.P., stated that if he were Minister of Agriculture he would not think of fixing the price of milk, no matter how much he were asked. Just how does Mr Munro balance that statement with the fact that the Labour Government has fixed the price of butter. cheese, bread, petrol, and a host of other things, not to mention the price of wheat and farm workers’ wages? He states that conditions in the trade were in a state of chaos. That is not a fair answer to the question that was put to him. There is no denying the fact that there is a milk famine, and I may state that a retailer is taking every drop of milk I can supply at Is per gallon, and he is very glad to get it. 1 agree that the shortage of winter feed has a good deal to do with the shortage, but there is still another reason—and a very grave one at that, We find that we are being continually harassed by the dairy inspectors; so much so that the owners of many registered dairies have thrown in their licences—it simply was not worth the candle to retain them. Since the present Government took over it has been simply intolerable, and one's soul is not one's own. Yes, Sir, and if this attitude is continued the rest of us will throw it in and, believe me, the shortage of milk and cream next winter will be a good deal worse than it is to-day. Owing to this continual harassing many of us farmers who voted for the Labour Government are now realising that we made a terrible mistake, but we can at least do our best to rectify that mistake at the next general election. —I am, etc., Mug Producer.