THE GUARANTEED PRICE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19140, 8 October 1936, Page 5

THE GUARANTEED PRICE

ELECTION-YEAR BONUS? STATEMENTS AT GISBORNE QUESTIONS IN HOUSE (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The attention of the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, was called by Mr. A. G. Hultquist (Labour, Bay of Plenty) to reports of meetings of dairycompanies in Wh'akatane and Gisborne addressed by Mr. A. L Murdoch, the chairman, and Mr. T. C. Brash, the secretary of the Dairy Hoard, at which Mr. Murdoch stated that the farmers expected a Is 6id per lb. guaranteed price for butter fat, whereas it had worked out at 12 9/10d.

Mr. Hultquist also asked whether there was any truth in the statement made by Mr. Brash at Gisborne on October 3 that if there was any surplus, in the dairy industry account at the end of the 1935-37 season it would be paid to the farmer in cash during election year. Mr. Brash, said Mr. Hultquist, had made the following statement: ''lt would probably be 1937 before it could be known whether or not there would be a surplus, That is election year, so you have a good fighting chance of getting it in cash."

Mr. Hultquist also asked the Minister whether he was aware of the fait that at meetings in the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne districts addressed by Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Brash, resolutions critical of the Government's policy generally in respect of dairy industry and marketing were being carried, despite the fact that the. dairy companies had previously expressed the- opinion that they would await the implementing of the full policy of the Government before, they would decide whether the Government's schemes were satisfactory or otherwise. Mr. 11. J. llolyoake (Nat., Motueka): They are only waking up. As the member's question was not urgent, it was not immediately answered by the Finance Minister.