A GUARANTEE FOR WOOL AND MEAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23810, 17 May 1939, Page 6

A GUARANTEE FOR WOOL AND MEAT

TO THE EDITOR

Sir—Will Mr S. J. Trotter, or any other advocate of a guaranteed price for wool and meat, explain what advantage sheep farmers may expect from such a scheme? Are they justified in expecting any better treatment than the dairy farmers have received.' Who is to assess the guaranteed price value for meat and wool? The Prime Minister has confessed more than once that he has no idea what the guaranteed price for wool will be, or how it will be arrived at. There is not a member of Cabinet any more capable of formulating it. If any expert committee is set up to advise the government is there any guarantee that their findings will be accepted? It has been estimated that wool cannot be grown profitably at less than Is a lb. To bring the average price oi wool up to that figure from the present season's returns would mean a subsidy of at least £1,500,000. Mr Savage has stated that he is not prepared to assist the woolgrowers at the expense of any other section of the community. This rules special taxation out of the question Neither is inflation by means ol a free loan from the Reserve Bank to be considered, as the Government has definitely decided against unorthodox finance.' The Primary and Ancillary Producers' Association, consisting of representatives of the Farmers* Union and Sheepowners' Federation, after mature consideration of the problem, issued a statement in which they recommended freeing of the exchange rate as a means of giving the farmers a much-needed bonus on their export produce and at the same time settling the import problem without the present hampering restrictions. Members of the Primary Producers' Committee have since addressed large meetings of farmers, and a very great proportion of their audiences have approved the plan. A free exchange would have certain disadvantages to the country, but they would be more than outweighed by the benefits. It is pleasing to know that the Government is setting up a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole question of farmers' costs. A reduction in costs is imperative to put the primary industries on a sound footing. As a start the Government might well consider abolition of the land tax. Some relief from county and hospital board rates is also necessary. The time will soon arrive, if it has not done so already, when farmers will not be able to meet all their due obligations. In such case they will have to discriminate as to which of their creditor they will pay—whether it will be their mortgagees, stock firms and grocers, or whether the rates, taxes and Crown rent. I leave it to the discriminating farmer to decide.—l am, etc., Countryman,