GUARANTEED PRICES AGAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 200, 27 August 1935, Page 11

GUARANTEED PRICES AGAIN

| J hat this policy is being advocated , day in and day out by speakers of the Labour Socialist Party, is the excuse for again referring to it. Every speaker emphasises the tremendous boon it will be to the farmers, and through them Io the community in general—but its advocates are giving so many conflicting versions as to its working that it is impossible to know exactly what it means or how it will pan out. The latest explanation was given at the Town Hall in Dunedin by Mr. B. Semple, M.F. He said “products might be down one year and rise the next, and vice versa. A good year cancelled out a bad year: thus the guaranteed price given to the farmers was nothing more than a repayable advance, in the long run the nation might lose nothing. ’ ’ From this it is evident that the tanner will have to refund in good years anything received over the guaranted price. Mr. Langstone 's description of the operation of this policy amounts to the same thing— namely the farmer will have to pay back the difference at, a later date—he said that they would “give the farmer Is 3d for'a pound of butter, sell the butter for 6d—with that Gd w’e buy some commodity overseas and we charge the farmer Is 3d for it. Surely this is a fair deal?” Apart from (he impossibility of arriving at a fair price for a pound of butter, in order to fix the guarantee it is difficult to see how the farmer is to benefit—if it is nothing more than » repnvable advance. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League).