FIXED PRICES

Southland Times, Issue 22817, 17 February 1936, Page 6

FIXED PRICES

VIEWPOINT OF WORKING FARMERS TALK WITH MINISTERS MR POLSON ISSUES A STATEMENT (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, February 15. The Dominion Executive of the Farmers’ Union placed before Ministers to-day the working farmers’ viewpoint on the Government’s proposals for assisting farmers. The proceedings were private. Mr W. J. Polson, M.P., the Dominion president of the Farmers’ Union, subsequently issued a long statement outlining the farmers’ viewpoints. He assured the Government of the executive’s anxiety to assist it, and said that the executive would be at the command of the Government by, being constantly available if further consultation was desired before the matter of the future prices of dairy produce was finally decided. In the course of this statement Mr Polson said members of the executive wished to make it clear that in advancing their claim they sought no advantage, but merely asked for the social justice of being able to obtain the exchange value of their produce in goods as expressed in terms of New Zealand money. “We would, however, like to set out that in our efforts to link the exporter’s recompense with the New Zealand price level we do not wish to endorse the wisdom of its uneconomic manipulations. “A real and fair estimate of the exporter’s right to reward would be built upon a price level of export in the country accepting it, and the price level of our imports from the country which supplies us. The rate of increase in the prices of imported articles is due to tariffs, taxes and charges, and the increased weight of service costs, which in turn are partly due to these same tariffs, taxes, and charges. “We believe with a recompensed return to farmers and the re-emergence of farm profits the scourge of unemployment would give place to a quickened, orderly advance of industries. “Serious as is the position to-day we are still more concerned with the consequences of the upward curve of the domestic price level. The economics of farming is profoundly affected by the stability' of prices « over long periods, and no clear policy of husbandry is likely to be pursued when the costs and prices ratio is constantly changing. An assurance of a general margin of cover, independent of social changes and their price level impact, will be a revitalizing agent in farm life. Land Values. “We wish to present to you the conception of the serious outlook for New Zealand’s land values should there be no plan of compensation for exporters. The value of land is determined by the wealth which it will produce over the costs of handling it. This Dominion has large areas of infertile or marginal land which offer no return comparable with the cost of settlement. As costs have risen the proportion of nonfarmable land has increased and any addition to the New Zealand price level must further extend this area unless means are adopted to link farmers’ returns to their outgoings. As the unoccupied areas of New Zealand form a considerable portion of our national assets the importance of this point need not be emphasized.” At the conclusion of the meeting the Prime Minister, Mr M. J. Savage, said that the meeting was quite friendly, there being no conflict of opinion. “They promised they would co-oper-ate with us to the fullest extent in the country’s interests and we returned the promise of co-operation,” he said. “The main representations made by the Farmers’ Union concerned guaranteed prices, and the executive was naturally concerned that the farmer should get a better deal. Our reply to that was simply that our programme was going to be put into operation, and the object was to give the farmer a better deal.” ‘ , Mr Savage said the other side of the problem, the mortgage side, had to be handled, too. Labour’s promise to the farmer was that he was to get a guaranteed price to begin with on the average of the last eight or ten years, and that mortgage liability was to be put on the same basis, Labour’s case being that that gave the man of average capacity the opportunity of working under average conditions. _ It also put the mortgagee in a position to have his equity established on natural conditions. One could not expect anything better than that.