THE GUARANTEED PRICE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 123, 27 May 1938, Page 6

THE GUARANTEED PRICE

THE Government has receded from its position in respect to the guaranteed price proposal as at first launched, and now if is trying to make a virtue out of giving back to the farmers what is their own. The original intention of the Government, as expressed by Mr. Nash, as Minister of Marketing, was to retain any balance remaining after the guaranteed price for the year had been paid out to factories for distribution to their suppliers. This balance was to be retained for the benefit of the industry, such use evidently to be decided by the Minister of Marketing. With the close approach of an election, the Prime Minister declares that the said surplus is the farmers—of which fact they are already quite aware—and that they can do what they like with it—for which no thanks is due to the Prime Minister. The Government’s marketing scheme does appear to be not a winning card for the Government to have in its hand at an election time, and consequently it is willing to discard its most important part. An independent tribunal, presided over by a Supreme Court judge, would be acceptable to the Government. This tribunal would decide the price for the year and, presumably, the destination of any surplus cash which might be available. The holding of a surplus of cash in a central pool has some merit, in that it enables the controllers of the pool to stabilise the price, from year to year. But this stabilisation of the price of butter-fat clarifies a much wider problem, namely, the relationship between returns from dairy farming and its ability to pay wages, and the, returns and wages paid in the sheltered industries. When the Minister of Marketing has the responsibility.for fixing the returns for butter-fat he also carries the responsibility for fixing the wages which can be paid in one of the Dominion’s basic and unsheltered industries. To-day the wages paid in the dairy industry are out of relation to those paid even lor labour on publie works. For the Government to get rid of this inconvenient responsibility in respect to the yearly price for butterfat is decidedly good tactics, because by so doing it will not be brought face to face, on its own responsibilty, with the wider problem of bringing the sheltered and unsheltered industries into nearer relationship with each other.