PRODUCERS PENALISED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3418, 19 September 1919, Page 10

PRODUCERS PENALISED.

Producers will have read with interest the report of an interview.which recently took place between the Prime Minister aM a deputation of butter producers It may well*cause producers, not engaged m buttermaking, to blmk an eye and be up and doing. Our readers will recollect Sat a deputation of the butter produce* recently waited on the head of the Gov Sent with a demand for relief from what is generally recognised as an inequitable payment wiidtt they had to specially meet in order to allow the dominion residents to purchase butter at a reasonable cost. In effect, they asked[why sWd the dairyman who sends his butter-fat to a cheese factory escape a penalty 'which the unlucky dairy farmer who had to manufacture for a butter-making concern be doubly taxed for the commvmity s sake? They urged that it would be fairer to adiust the difference in the butter-fat prices, from the Consolidated Fund, as is Sone with flour, and let all New Zealand taxpayers carry the burden The Prime Minister countered heayily. He told the butter deputation that once butter went up in England they had a case, and that as producers they should get the export value of their butter. It was we take it, not seriously proposed that any arrangement which may be made will be retrospective, but for this present season only, the butter people having patriotically carried on, as all admit, in a manner •which perhaps no other class of producers were called upon. However, the point we wish to make is, that the deputation must have come away from the interview feeling that had they but voiced their views with emphasis at the time the price in England went up, and kept hammering at the Government, they would without doubt have been met in any reasonable demand for an increase in the export price of butter. How the differences would have been made up between the export price and the local price may best be imagined. The foregoing, in its bearing on "the producers of their rural products, opens up ground for some interesting speculation, more particularly in respect to hides/ sheepskins, wool, etc. The butter producers, it rnust_ be borne in mind, made their bargain with the Gov ernment, good or bad in respect to the local price and the equalisation fund, but no agreement in respect to hides was ever made by the Government with producers. The Board of Trade simply stepped in and stayed all shipments until the hides had been offered to local tanne'rs. This is a very different matter to selling all sorts of hides to the Government, at scheduled prices, a matter worth considering but which cannot well be satisfactorily arranged till there is a conference between the producers concerned and the Government. The latter may be making meritorious efforts to keep down the cost of living, but it will be admitted it is grossly unfair if any one class of producers is penalised unduly. The Government may fix the price of leather, but what good can come to producers if an embargo has the effect of taking the best hides from a man at a comparatively. low figure while his worst hides make considerably more money per pound in the open market? Why,,the temptation is open to send in to brokers damaged rather than well-saved hides. No, the best plan would seem to be to subsidise the tanners if necessary, the same, as is done with the flourmillers. fix a price for leather and offer the hides in open competition. In respect to wool, matters are rather different, as producers are promised half the profits on wool sold for civilian purposes by the Imperial Government; yet here, too, growers are penalised as 1 we may be sure administrative charges will loom large; and, even at prices paid plus half profits, the amount per pound of wool will be well under the world's market values. Take sheepskins; we know of no probability that owners will share in any profits, yet these must be enormous, judging from prices realised for slipe wools and pelts on the London market. Again with meat, producers agreed to accept what may be deemed satisfactory rates per pound, but in the back of their minds

they held the idea that Home people would be getting reasonably cheap meat, twit are they ? The cheese and butter exported and sold in the Old Country is probably sold at less than landed cost and a call made on Great Britains' consolidated revenue to make up any difference. A recent cable stated that the Food Controller ordered that all cheese bought after August 1 shall be placed at his disposal on arrival in Great Britain at a price not exceeding Is 2d per pound, landed. We know that. British farmers a,re not now labouring under an embargo of any description, and that their locally grown wools are making .up to 43 pence per pound. _ The position in New Zealand is altogether unsatisfactory. The fact that dominion producers are not getting world's prices, hits them in a score of •ways, well enough in war time but now indefensible. In addition to their ordinary taxation, they indirectly contribute a further payment—probably greater than the taxation they pay in the Dominion—to the Imperial Government, and in respect to hides—to the community of New Zealand, or maybe—help to swell the profits of tanners and boot manufacturers. Surely the success of settlement to-day is more or less imperilled in the Dominion if producers taking up dear lands do not receive world's market prices (and pay taxation thereon) and all encouragement given, not to curtail, but to stimulate, production.