FARMERS WANT INCREASE

Southland Times, Issue 25434, 5 August 1944, Page 4

FARMERS WANT INCREASE

Diversion Of Funds Feared

RISE IN BUTTERFAT PRICE SOUGHT

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 4. An increase of twopence a pound in the price of butterfat and a subsidy for rearing heifer calves are to be sought by dairy farmers in terms of a proposal adopted at the annual conference of the New Zealand Dairy Board. The decision emerged from consideration by a special conference committee of the statement made yesterday by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser). The recommendation was that the Government be asked to pay 26/2 per cwt. on butter and 12/3 per cwt. on cheese for the period April 1, 1943 to July 31, 1944, and 33/6 per cwt. on butter and 16/3 per cwt. on cheese for forward contract prices to the credit of the Dairy Industry Stabilization Account and that no debits should be made against this account other titan new subsidies or increases of previous subsidies since December 1942 as approved by the dairy industry, and that the butterfat price be increased by twopence a pound with an additional payment to ensure the rearing of an adequate number of heifer calves.

DIVERSION OF FUNDS?

In comment, the committee said it could be read from Mr Fraser’s statement that the whole of the lump sum nayments were to be diverted to other than dairy industry purposes, but the committee considered it inconceivable that this should be the Government’s intention. It therefore recommended that the Dairy Board be asked to clarify this position and that if the sums so received for dairy produce were not to be credited to the Dairy Industry Stabilization Account the board should have the authority to reconvene the Dominion dairy conference. The report was adopted unanimously and the chairman assured delegates that there would be no compromise. The board would sit tight on the request for the twopence. The conference also decided: That producers, being concerned with the elimination of all factors adversely affecting their rank and file and having a consequent detrimental effect on production, demand that an undertaking be given by the Cabinet that no more controversial legislation will be introduced for the duration of the war.’’ The conference resolved, some dissenting, that the co-operation of the Dairy Board be sought to have the compulsory manufacture and use of serpentine superphosphate replaced by the manufacture of straight superphosphate only- , , , The Dairy Board is to be asked to investigate the post-war marketing of butter and cheese and report to the next Dominion dairy conference. FARMERS RIGHT TO PAYMENTS Compensation From Britain (P.A.) DUNEDIN, August 4. “The statement by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) at the dairy conference that a retrospective payment of £12,000,000 sterling and the payment of £4,000,000 per annum for the next four years have been granted by the British Government as compensation for the increased prices charged by United Kingdom manufacturers for goods supplied to the Dominion is not likely to be accepted by primary producers,” sad Mr W. G. Wight, secretary of the South Island Dairy Association, in an interview today. “Dairy farmers are realists and they are tired of occupying the position of serfs so that other sections of the people may profit from their industry. “I am sure,” Mr Wight said, “that farmers will be convinced in their own minds that the generous action of the British Government is acknowledgment of the fact that the farmers of this country have not been receiving adequate payment for their services and that the explanation made by the Prime Minister is nothing more nor less than an ingenious device aimed at depriving the producers of additional returns for their products and diverting, the money to other purposes more in keeping with the Government’s socialist policy. Indeed, the impression I get from a perusal of the statement is that it probably originated in the fertile brain of the Minister of Finance whose hostility to dairy producers and the farming community generally is well recognized. If it is the desire of the New Zealand Government to stop the serious decline in dairy production and meet the needs of the Mother Country and at the same time improve the Dominion’s economic position overseas it will be well advised to pay the producer the full market value for his produce,” Mr Wight concluded.