The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1936. THE FARMER AND GUARANTEED PRICES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 63, 14 March 1936, Page 8

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1936. THE FARMER AND GUARANTEED PRICES

■yUE farmers of the South Auckland Dairy Association art: perturbed because they fear that the Government will first inlroduee a measure implementing their guaranteed prices for dairy- produce proposals without making clear to the industry itself what those proposals are. The fear is justified. The Government is in a hurry' to produce measures, and because it is in a hurry it is likely' to make some serious mistakes. The guaranteed prices proposal, Mr. Lee Martin claims, was endorsed at the last general election. This is untrue. The Government cannot claim that any specific plank in its platform was endorsed. The vote which was east at. the last general election was east as a Protest A ote, cast in such a way as to ensure the defeat of the then Government. Because the Labour Party' was the extreme of the parties offering, a vote east for the Labour Party' was the best method for the elector lo adopt to ensure the defeat of the Coates-Forbes Governiiient. It was for that reason the electors voted so strongly for I .about'. In the second place, there could be no endorsement of a proposal before it was formulated. The Government has been, tn conference with rcprtx-ntatives of the dairying industry for several months, and after so long a time it has eventually appointed a committee to go into the matter, in the hope that some scheme will be finalised. Seeing that the Government itself does not know what the eventual scheme will be, how can the public, or the dairy fanners, be said to have endorsed the proposal ? The only occasion when the representatives of the dairy industry could be said to have considered the proposals was when Mr. Walter Xash attended the National. Dairy Association’s Conference, and submitted his version of the guaranteed prices scheme, whereupon, despite his persuasiveness, the scheme was analy-sed by' Air. Sinclair, of Te Awaniutu, and revealed Io be an unsatisfactory set of proposals. The conference rejected the proposal in no uncertain manner. In view of the inability' of Air. Nash to secure a favourable verdict for his proposals from the Dairy Farmers’ Conference on that occiision, it is not only impossible to declare that the proposals have been endorsed, but it is impossible to declare that the Government Ims a mandate from anyone at. all io bring forward siu-h I'" qmsals.