GUARANTEED PRICE

Southland Times, Issue 25503, 25 October 1944, Page 4

GUARANTEED PRICE

PROCEDURE DEFENDED BY MR OSBORNE A vigorous defence of the guaranteed price system was made by Mr A. G. Osborne, M.P., when speaking at Kauana in the by-election last night. Mr Osborne addressed a good attendance in the Kauana Hall in support of the official Labour candidate, Mr Leo O’Sullivan. Mr Albert Beck was' the chairman. The guaranteed price, which had been bitterly opposed by the National Party, had brought security and stability to the primary industries, said Mr Osborne, and had brought farmers out of a critical depression period and seen them through the difficult war years. The speaker began by paying a personal tribute to the late member of Parliament for Awarua, Brigadier James Hargest, and expressed his regret at the necessity for a by-election in such circumstances. LABOUR’S PROGRAMME

Reviewing the Labour programme since its election to power, Mr Osborne said that the Labour Government in the four peacetime years from 1935 to 1938 had achieved more than any other Government in the history of New Zealand. It had undertaken the responsibility of leading New Zealand out of the greatest economic crisis in its history, and in 12 months had put the people back into productive work. The Labour Government had recognized that prosperity could not be restored by cutting down the spending power of the people, and, though many men had to be retained for some time on such work as road maintenance, Labour had increased their spending power from 27/6 and 30/- a week to £4 and £5 a week. This increased power of consumption had naturally increased the productive power of the country. Dealing with the .problems of the farming community, Mr Osborne said he wished first of all to point out that town and country were interdependent —the industrial worker and the farmer had their futures bound up together, served each other, and supplied each other’s markets. “The National candidate for Awarua a few days ago made an attack on Trade Union leaders,” said Mr Osborne. “Now, if the trade unions retaliated we would get nowhere, and such a state of affairs would be doubly regrettable in wartime.” GUARANTEED PRICE Bankruptcy was staring 50 per cent, of the dairy farmers of the country in the face when Labour came into power in 1935, said the speaker, and so the dairy industry was the first to get the guaranteed price. The dairy farmers wanted it, to give them freedom from the uncertainty and instability of past years. As a result of consultations between the industry and the Government, the dairy farmer was receiving a price today that represented an increase of 147 per cent, on the price in 1934.

It had been stated, for political reasons, that the dairy farmer was worse off today than before, but the figures of the Commissioner of Taxation showed otherwise. In 1935 that group of dairy farmers with properties of a capital value less than £3OOO were receiving an average income of £75 a year. In March 1943 the same group was receiving an aver-, age income of £370 a year. There had been violent fluctuations in the 1933-34 period, said Mr Osborne, ranging from 5Jd per lb to lOd per lb for butterfat, and such fluctuations were not good for any industry. A man must have security of income in order to be able to budget ahead. It might be thought unfair to take depression figures, but after the last war the story was the same. In July 1920 the butterfat price was 30d, but by December had dropped to 17d and 18d. A lot of returned men who had gone on to the land at inflated values were forced to walk off when prices approached normality. The National candidate had recently said he would not condemn the guaranteed price altogether, as it might be an improvement in some respects on the old procedure, said Mr Osborne, but, he asked, was there any angle from which the old procedure was superior to the. guaranteed price? That the Labour Government’s marketing procedure was the best in the world had been stated by Mr William Goodfellow, one of the outstanding leaders of the dairy industry in New Zealand, after- a visit to the United Kingdom. New Zealand’s produce had been taken out of fixe hands of the Tooley Street merchants, and was safe from market fluctuations. Aftex- an attentive hearing fixe meeting passed a vote of thanks to the speaker and confidence in the Labour candidate and party. The mover- was Mr W. A. Wallace and the seconderMr George Peck.