MILK SUPPLIERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24912, 11 May 1942, Page 4

MILK SUPPLIERS

DEBARRED FROM WAR COSTS ALLOWANCE PLIGHT OF OTAGO FARMERS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 10. Now that the Government had granted a war cost allowance to ordinary dairy farmers it was to be hoped the gross injustice under which farmers who supplied milk to some of the towns in the Dominion were suffering would be rectified, said the secretary of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, Mr A. P. O'Shea, to-day. They had been disgracefully treated, he said. With prices stabilised at the 1939 level the farmers in some districts, notably in Otago, were selling milk below the cost of production and consumers were getting an unfair advantage. There was as yet no provision to pass on to th"e milk suppliers the allowances for war costs which had been granted to other sections of the community. It was interesting to contrast the treatment they had received with that given to the producers of beer, said Mr O'Shea. The Government knew the position, and it was high time it took action to rectify the injustice. In some districts the milk production for town supply had become hopelessly uneconomic. As a result, small quantities of milk were collected over widespread - areas, and temporary licences for town supplies had even been granted to some producers whose buildings were not up to the necessary health standard.