FARMERS BURDEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 450, 16 December 1930, Page 8

FARMERS BURDEN

INTEREST BILL ACCUSED THE LABOUR VIEWPOINT [ Per Preus Association. ] CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 13 Claiming that it is the interest bill and not the wages bill that keeps on the burden that weighs down the farmer, the North Canterbury Labour Representative Committee has issued a statement in reply to a resolution carried at a recent meeting of farmers, urging the abolition of the Arbitration Court. The statement says that a reduction of wages would result in the curtailing of the demands of the local market and result in a fall in the value of the farmers’ produce.

Wages and Interest Compared The statement issued by the committee reads as follows: “Back of the demand for the abolition or suspension of the Arbitration Court is the wish to reduce wages. The attack on the Arbitration Court is a smoke screen designed to hide the fact that it is not the wages Bill but the interest Bill that is the burden that weighs down the farmer and indeed the whole nation. As an illustration of the fact that not wages but interest constitutes the. burden, we use Mr WJ- Polson’s illustration of a farmer whose interest bill was approximately £BOOO per annum and whose wages bill was less than £3OO per annum. We make the further point that thousands of farmers pay either no wages or very little wages and so would not benefit, by any reduction of wages or interference with the court. “If it is argued that the farmer in purchasing farm machinery or other farm and domestic supplies has to pay city wages, we point out that balance sheets can be quoted to show that wages equal only a little over 9 per cent, of the total expenditure and a ten per cent redutcion of 9 per cent of their purchases would be infinitesimal in the degree of assistance to farmers. Worth of Local Market “We further urge that reductions in wages can only intensify the farmers’ difficulties by reducing the absorbing power of the local market. In. support of this we point out that at the first of the South Island wool sales the factor that contributed mostly to keeping up the price of preventing a further fall was the demand of the local mills. A reduction in wages must reduce the demands of the local market and result in a further fall in the value of the farmers’ produce.” To discuss the points raised in the statement and to consider the present economic position generally a mass meeting of trade unionists will be held next Thursday evening when the Mayor (the Rev. J. K. Archer) will preside, and addresses will be given by Labour members of Parliament. Mr Morgan WiPiams. who is a farmer and a member of the Labour Party, will also speak, as will a member of the Trades and Labour Council.