A CALL TO FARMERS

Southland Times, Issue 23634, 8 October 1938, Page 18

A CALL TO FARMERS

To the Editor

Sir, —I am a farmer and what is good for me is good for every other farmer. My only request is that every farmer in Awarua and Wallace should read this letter and think for himself. I was one who was dairying in 1933 when London parity for butterfat was 7d and I well remember the struggle. In 1935 the Labour party came along with promises of reduction of taxation and a guaranteed price to the dairy farmer. This policy I embraced with enthusiasm and my vote with those of many other farmers put the Labour party in the Treasury benches. What happened? For causes entirely unconnected with New Zealand, London prices advanced, and the guaranteed price received by the farmer has not only equalled London parity but is less by £600,000 than the produce has actually realized. What did I find immediately after the last election? Not only that my costs were going up by leaps and bounds but I found that it was impossible to keep good men on the farm in competition with public works. The Labour Party said, “We are going to alter the distribution of wealth,” and it has done that with a vengeance, but little did the farmer think he was to be the chief victim of this policy. The Labour Party in the three years of office has, by way of increased costs, taken £5,000,000 a year or a total of £15,000,000 out of the pockets of the farmers of New Zealand and I challenge Messrs Beck and Lynch, who are soliciting farmers’ votes, to disprove the accuracy of this statement. What has the Labour Party given the farmer in return? I say nothing. The Dairy Board was previously in existence and the selling agencies adopted by the Government were those approved by the board. The present party has maintained the low rate of interest

introduced by Mr Coates when he brought into being the State Advances Corporation but recently the Labour Minister has seen fit to raise the rate of interest on Government Life Insurance Department mortgages from 4| to 4| per cent, and the bulk of these mortgages relate to farm lands. The price of lime and superphosphate has not increased. What will happen if the Labour Party remains in office and London parity, for butterfat again drops to 7d? Remember farmers, we are already burdened with the extra costs. In a Press Association message of September 17, 1938, Mr Nash in explaining' why he would not give effect to the unanimous recommendation of the committee appointed by the Government, used these words: “Heavy deficits, moreover, if repeated must inevitably wreck the whole guaranteed price procedure.” The beans are spilt. Mr Nash says in effect that guaranteed prices must bear a close relationship to London parity. If that doesn’t show just what Mr Nash thinks of Mr Savage’s poppycock when the latter says he can insulate New Zealand from the effects of a slump in export prices, then I don’t understand the King’s English. Just one more point. The effect of the staggering extra company taxation which the Labour Party has recently seen fit to impose will be felt next year. Companies of every description including manufacturers will have no option but to pass on the extra expense and up will go the cost of commodities again and we farmers will have the privilege of paying. Have you noticed that the Government was not game to make the Social Security Act effective when the Act was passed. No, Mr Nash has already budgeted for borrowing the staggering sum of £14,500,000, so ’he postponed the operation of the Act till April next, otherwise he would have had to budget before the election for borrowing a sum approximately of £24,000,000. I have no animus against members of any political party but affairs have now reached such a point that every farmer should unite to put the present party out. Any farmer who does not deserves all that is coming to him. I. leave the other sections of the community to fight their own battles.—Yours, etc., STUNG ONCE BUT NOT AGAIN. October 7, 1938.