DAIRY PRODUCE PRICES

Southland Times, Issue 23774, 23 March 1939, Page 5

DAIRY PRODUCE PRICES

GUARANTEE FOR NEXT SEASON MINISTER’S SUGGESTION NOT ACCEPTABLE (United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, March 22. The Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, has suggested that the guaranteed price next season for dairy produce should be that announced by him for the present season. This was indicated by the chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board (Mr W. E. Hale) when he was speaking to a meeting in the city of dairy producers in North Canterbury. Mr Hale added that the industry would not agree to the Minister’s suggestion. He said also that the dairy industry, having accepted the guaranteed price as an established principle of the Government and having mutually agreed on standards of costs of production—which should be altered only in very exceptional circumstances —was not prepared to accept any variation of the standards recommended by the 1938 Advisory Committee. Moreover, in the present conditions any return to the basis of accepting an open market price would-be unthinkable, nor was the suggestion favoured that an expert committee should go into the question of farm costs as this would simply mean reopening an inquiry that was satisfactorily completed last year.

Mr Hale said he had interviewed the Minister about the guaranteed price, and the Minister’s viewpoint had been set out in a letter to him as chairman of the Dairy Board. He had been given permission to consult associated organizations in order to obtain ths reaction of the industry to the Minister’s suggestions. “The Minister’s proposals received very careful consideration,” said Mr Hale, “and the decision conveyed tohim was that the standards as unanimously recommended by the 1938 Advisory Committee, and accepted so far as is known unanimously by the dairy industry, were the standards that the industry or any organization connected with the industry could not agree to vary. The Minister’s suggestion that the guaranteed price for next season should be that announced by him for the present season was not acceptable.” The view of the Advisory Committee which had before it the most complete survey ever undertaken with the industry was that standards of the industry having been made they should not be varied from year to year and should only be altered in very exceptional circumstances. “As we understand it the Guaranteed Price Act was brought into operation for the benefit of the dairy industry as a whole with the exception of any portion which could be regarded as inefficient,” said Mr Hale. “Therefore to expect an industry to produce on the basis of the cost reached from a survey of the best types of farms would not make for permanency of the plan, nor would it be satisfactory either to the Government or to the industry. Thus it is imperative that the Government should accept the prices and standards as recommended by the 1938 Advisory Committee with adjustments as to known increases in costs. If this proposal is acceptable to the Government it will place price fixation on a sound foundation, and the question will simply be left for discussion and decision between the industry and the Government as to what adjustment of prices may be necessary because of increases in costs.”