FARMERS’ NEEDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20067, 26 March 1935, Page 12

FARMERS’ NEEDS

PROBLEM OF LEVIES AND QUOTAS PRAISE FOR MR COATES “It is extremely doubtful if we can escape a levy in some form or other, and we can only hope that the Prime Minister and Mr T. A. Duncan will be able to convince the British Government that a quota on the lines of the arrangement entered into at Ottawa, without a levy, will be in the best interests of this country as a whole,” said Mr Gordon Fulton, president of the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association, when reviewing the farming year at the annual meeting of that association. Ottawa, he said, had increased the value of sheep in New Zealand by 7/- to 8/a head, and for that farmers had to thank Mr Coates and his advisers. “One must sympathise with our legislators In the perplexing problems they are confronted with, and it is hoped that some measure of alleviation will accrue from their efforts to those in urgent need of it,” said Mr Fulton. “Political expedience in the Old Country is likely to have a marked effect upon the future of farming in this Dominion, and wherever farmers gather together the restrictions likely to be placed upon our exports are topics discussed with due seriousness. Britain’s Policy “We are secure under the Ottawa Agreement until August, 1937, but the British Government is not by any means satisfied with the position and is very anxious to bring matters to a head and frame a long-term agreement with the Dominions and the Argentine. Major Elliot’s latest policy, as recently published, which has the support of the British Government, is the encouragement of the maximum supply of meat for the benefit of consumers and for a levy on all imported meat which would be handed on to the Home producer to improve the price of his product.

"I wculd draw your attention to the Australian attitude. They rightly object to a levy, but insist on no restrictions. From our point of view I am sure the removal of any restriction on mutton and lamb would definitely prove detrimental to our Interests. No doubt they reason that the present level of wool prices is certain to drive more Australian producers than ever into competition for the production of iambs and sheep suitable for export. From what I know of Australia, I am perfectly certain that should they concentrate on the production of lambs for the London market it is only a question of time when their production will equal in quantity or very

nearly so the number this Dominion is sending to London. Therefore, the removal of a quota or restriction on Australia alone must react on our prosperity in no small manner. Before and After “We have good cause to remember the chaotic state of the meat market before the Ottawa Agreement, and we all realise that had Mr Coates, with the resistance of Mr David Jones, not been able to impress on the British delegates the urgent necessity for restricting the Argentine output by 2,000,000 carcases it is safe to say that we wou’d have been in desperate straits long ere this. I am perfectly certain that Ottawa was responsible for an increase of, at the lowest estimate, 7/- to 8/- a head on every sheep in the dominion, for, after all, the price of lamb governs the value of our flocks as a whole, and for this we owe Mr Coates and his advisers a debt of gratitude which should never be forgotten.”