PRIMARY PRODUCTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 June 1942, Page 3

PRIMARY PRODUCTS

INCREASED PRICES CONSIDERED UNDESIRABLE. AN OUTSPOKEN FARMER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, June 18. The opinion that no requests should be made by the New Zealand Government to the British Government for increased prices for primary products at the present time was expressed by the chairman of the South Island Dairy Association, Mr H. H. Meredith, at the annual conference today. “A matter which gives food for thought is the increase of 15 per cent in the price of wool which, it was recently announced, has been granted by the British Government,” the chairman said. “I am a sheep owner myself; but I cannot say I feel very happy about it. I experienced a similar reaction when the Government received an increase in the price of cheese last year. It appears to me that in the present circumstances when Britain is engaged in a life and death struggle for her very existence and the whole of her 'physical and financial resources are being taxed to the utmost limits, it is not a friendly act for the people of this Dominion, who are so closely related to her, to demand their ‘pound of flesh.’ “It has been reported, I know, that i was on the representations of Australia that the increase was granted, but that does not relieve my conscience in the matter. So far as I know, this Dominion was not bound to follow Australia’s lead. It would have been a fine gesture of goodwill toward our kinsfolk had the offer been declined.”