PRICE GUARANTEE PLANS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19099, 21 August 1936, Page 5

PRICE GUARANTEE PLANS

CRITICISM IN OTAGO HIGHER. RATES WANTED (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, this day. At. a meeting of the provincial executive of the Farmers’ Union yesterday, the following resolution was carried : “That in the event of dairy farmers’ costs being materially increased, as the present rising costs indicate, the Government be urged to consider the raising of the guaranteed price in order to bring the standard of living of the dairy farmer into some relationship with that of the rest of the community.’’

Supporting! this resolution, Mr. -A. Renton (Stirling) stated that before the guaranteed price was announced the Government had promised that the dairy farmer would receive a definite benefit from the scheme and had indicated that other things would he adjusted accordingly. “Now that the price is announced, the dairy farmer finds that he is no better off than lie was before, but that all his costs have considerably advanced,” continued Dir. Renton. “The position, in a nutshell, is that his costs have advanced anything from 2|d to 3i,d per lb of butterfat, and the price under the guarantee will be no better than many factories received last year on the open market. Most dairy farmers welcomed the suggestion of guaranteed prices, but, now the price has been announced, they are bitterly disappointed.

“It seems to me that, in arriving at the basis of the guaranteed prices, the Government has taken the average of some of the worst years in the history of the dairy industry, but in assessing the increase of wages to various sections of ihe community affected by the recent legislation, it has based it, on wages that were paid in the boom period.” COSTS OF PRODUCTION FEARS IN WAIKATO The fear that there would he a wide discrepancy between realisations and the cost of production on this season’s operations in connection with New Zealand s dairy industry was expressed by Mr. G. Buchanan at a conference convened by the New Zealand Dairy Board and held in Hamilton.

■On Mr. Buchanan’s motion, the following motion was carried:—“That the Dairy Board be requested to urge upon the Government the necessity for giving consideration to the increasing costs in the factory and on the farm with a view to making a bonus payment for the 1936-37 season, this to be dealt with when the season’s results are finalised.”