DAIRY PRODUCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20781, 16 July 1937, Page 8

DAIRY PRODUCE

FIXING THE PRICE FARMERS’ PROPOSAL By Teleernnh Presp «a<«nciAfinv WELLINGTON, July 15. A motion that a tribunal presided over by a Supreme Court Judge holding office for eight or ten years should compute the price of dairy produce, was carried by the Conference of the Farmers’ Union to-night. It is proposed that the tribunal shall be appointed by a committee consisting of equal numbers of members nominated by the dairy industry and the Government, that the price should be determined on the evidence and accepted by the Government and that the proceedings and the findings of the tribunal be treated as those of the Arbitration Court are. “It Is most unfair that the Government who are the sole buyers of produce should nominate the committee who are even to advise it,’’ said Mr D. B. Higgins <Auckland), who moved the motion. “The committee, while they may claim to be farmers, are not representatives of the farmers. We did not cle**t them and have no say at all. We feel that in future we should have the right to elect an equal number of members. We do not mind who the Government elect so long as we have that right. Even if we get a compensated price we shall have to have a committee.” The following remits also were carried: “That this conference calls the attention of the Government to the increasing moui tain of costs the primary industries are being called upon to bear with no opportunity of passing these costs on to the consumers as is possible in every* other department of industry and commerce, and expresses the emphatic opinion that a substantial addition to the price for butterfat and cheese for the current season is essential if the farmers’ standard of living is not to be reduced further and the productive capacity of the farms jeopardised.” “That this conference opposes the recent action of the Internal Marketing Department in increasing the retail price of bacon by 3d per lb without any corresponding increase in price to the producer.”