OPUNAKE TIMES "Speaks for the District." FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1937. DAIRY PRODUCE PRICES

Opunake Times, 23 July 1937, Page 2

OPUNAKE TIMES "Speaks for the District." FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1937. DAIRY PRODUCE PRICES

Prices for New Zealand butter and cheese are moving- upward in London, but the rise has little direct meaning l for the dairy farmer. What he is to receive for his output in the coming- season does not necessarily depend, and according to law should not depend in any degree, on what is paid for it at final disposal. But, while the fixed price arranged under last year's legislation was supposed to free the fanner from all uncertainty about his future, he is at the threshold of a new season knowing" no more about his prospects than if the old order had been left undisturbed. In less than a fortnight the season will have begun, and still the prices to be paid for butter and cheese are unknown. They are supposed to be fixed by entirely different standards from those used for determining the 1936-37 prices. Those rates were fixed under the Act, after taking into consideration the prices received for produce of the same kind, grade and quality exported during a period of from eight to ten years proceeding July 31, 1935. For the new season the decision is. to be regulated by circumstances with no relation at all to returns from the export market. These are, briefly, the necessity of maintaining the stability and efficiency of the dairy industry; the cost of efficient production: the general standard of living of those en•<>"cd in dairying compared with the general standard throxighout New Zealand; and the' estimated cost of marketing by the department, together with the cost of administering the Prime Produce Marketing Act. If all these factors are to be assessed and seriously counted in finding the necessary answer, the prices for 193?38 may be very different from those paid in the season just ending. The farmer does not know and cannot know, what is to be expected. He cannot make plans, he cannot budget in advance, while the days are slipping by, bringing his period of uncertainty uncomfortably close to the actual opening of the new season.