PATERSON PLAN

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXII, Issue 2820, 3 March 1932, Page 8

PATERSON PLAN

IAPPLICATION TO PIG INDUSTRY. SUGGESTION NOT FAVOURED. A suggestion that the Paterson Plan, which operates in Australia in regard to butter, by which local consumers pay about 3d more per pound than the export value ami this margin is used to subsidise exports of butter, should be applied in New Zealand to the pork and bacon industry, was discussed at last Saturday’s meeting of the Te Awamutu Branch of the N.Z.' Farmers’ Union, says the “Waipa Post.” Mr G. H. Whyte introduced the subject. on behalf of the Ohaupo Branch, and detailed the applicability of the plan, but members considered it would be most umvisc to introduce such a system, for while for a short period it might show a benefit, ultimately its operation would entail a protective tariff, which the union was opposed to, because it was really due to the operation of protective tariffs that the New Zealand market showed a higher value than the export. Further, the operation of the scheme depended wholly on a big proportionate home consumption, ami New Zealand’s population was insufficient to provide this, especially as the natural imminent expansion of the industry took place. The remedy lay in reorganisation of our currency and economic life, when the need for such palliative would disappear.