CRITICISM OF GUARANTEED PRICES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20839, 22 September 1937, Page 8

CRITICISM OF GUARANTEED PRICES

To the Editor of “ The Timaru Herald ” Sir, —Judging from the true facts of the case, one is forced to the conclusion that, the agitation now going on concerning guaranteed prices, is purely artificial, and engineered, in all probability, by these who, just prior to the slump, drove the farmers where they wanted them to be, by telling them what a glorious time awaited them as the result of cutting wages and salaries, which had been carefully

planned by certain gentlemen In luxuriously furnished city offices. The tens of thousands of bankrupted farmers will never forget the time they got. They are not likely to be herded together now, as they were then, by the spurious pretence that the Labour Government fooled them over the guaranteed prices system. The Labour Government had no need to interfere with the dairying interests at all. But it did interfere. Why? For the sole purpose of helping the dairy farmers to rise to a higher living standard than ever they had reached before, by protecting them from the vagaries of the London market. Instead of leaving them to the tender mercies of profiteers, it said: Let us give the dairy farmers of New Zealand a fairer deal than ever they have had before, in the whole of their laborious lives; let 1 us give them a really profitable price for their produce; and, let the farmers themselves and their accredited representatives figure out for us what they consider a good and fair price, and we will pay them that price. All this was done. The produce was shipped. It I landed in London where many speculators were waiting to pounce upon it. I But, those who were known to have been in the habit of placing it on the . market at inopportune times, thereby ! depressing prices, got none. The price i immediately rose, until finally it overtook the Danish price, for the first time in our experience. Giving the Government only half the credit for this rise, then, we set aside the sum of £560,000 as a gain for the dairy farmers of New Zealand. Other gains i resulted as follows:—The selling comj mission was reduced to id per cent, | which meant a saving of £lOO,OOO. The Dairy Board’s levy was reduced by i £40,000. The paying of cash as soon as | the butter was placed on board ship 1 meant a saving in interest charges of £lOO,OOO. Assuming that all these figures are correct, as I believe them to be, then our dairy farmers received the sum of £BOO,OOO, which they would not have got but for the marketing scheme of the Government.- As there was a deficit of £650,000 on the year’s trading, the farmers must have got the benefit 'of that sum also. All told then, the j dairy farmers received the sum of : £1,450,000 more than they agreed to accept, nad more than they expected. Now, consider the prospects for next year. It has been calculated that this year’s guaranteed price will be 13Id per lb for butter, and this will enable most dairy factories to pay out more than i 1/2 for butterfat. Three years ago, Mr i Polson implored Mr Coates to give the ! farmers lOd per lb for butterfat. That, 'he assured the House would be quite ' sufficient. Can those who are now comI plaining, honestly deny that the Labour i Government has done more for the daihy formers of this Dominion than any previous Government ever did?— j I am, etc., A. M. PATERSON. Timaru, September 21.