MEAT AND WOOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23858, 12 July 1939, Page 4

MEAT AND WOOL

QUESTION OF FIXED PRICE

HOW WOULD IT WORK? REQUEST FOR .EXPLANATION (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, July 11 A request that Government members should give clear indication to the country just how the socalled guaranteed price for meat and wool would work was made by Mr J A Roy (Opposition, Clutha) when speaking ir. the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives to-day.

Mr Roy said he understood that

dviduals in some districts were taking round petitions among the farmers asking for a guaranteed price for meat and wool and he thought the whole story should be put before the House and the country. Referring to the possibility of a deficit having to be met over a period of years, Mr Roy asked whether the Left Wing would meet i' with inflation by the use of the Reserve Bank ~r whether the money would be raised by taxation or borrowing. Tf by taxation, who would b 2 taxed to find the amount? He also asked whether the price for mea- and wool would be fixed by the Government alone or whether thf> farmers would have a say, and inquired whether the Government would guarantee to fix costs so that there would not be a repetition of the spectacle of dairy farmers having their prices fixed but not their costs. Drift from the Land Would the State be the purchaser of meat and wool as with dairy produce? Mr Roy asked, and would the guaranteed price be high enough to enable the f armers to compete in the Labour market with other industries? “I think these questions should be answered by the Government so that the farmers will know exactly what the position is,” Mr Hoy said. Referring to the drift of men from the land to the cities and to nonproductive works, Mr Roy said that in his electorate a number of farmers had had clearing sales md those farms to-day were lying idle. That was a very serious state of affairs in a country which depended so much on primary production as its basic industry and the main source of its wealth.

“Is it advisable at this stage, Mr Roy asked, “to consider bringing moi\. land into production when the land we already have in production and much of it very good land, is very rapidly going out of production? The farming community today is having, by necessity, to readjust itself to the altered conditions. There is a shortage, no. of 1- boui but of efficient labour. It is almost impossible to get a really reliable man who could be put in charge of a first-class team with confidence that the work would be dom in an efficient manner. The farmers are rapidly turning over to the use of tractors. That may be in many cases quite desirable, but ir other cases it means that they have to involve themselves in a heavy capital outlay.” Best Men on Public Works Mr Roy said the Ministei of Public Works (Mr Semple) had put life into the Public Works programme and much of that . programme was being carried out in an efficient manner. Although there was much up-to-date machinery in use, the country was still having to employ and pay a large army of men on public works and the average farmer could not compete with the public works. “We have the spectacle of the best of our young men going on to public works,” Mr Roy added. “ I don’t blame them for that. And so far a. my part of the world is :oncerned men are still carrying out public works in an old-fashioned way with pick nd shovel. Some of that work could have been done in far less time and at less cost under the contract system.”

BOWLING