DAIRY FARMER WELL OFF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 6

DAIRY FARMER WELL OFF

CERTAINTY OF INCOME EFFECT OF GOOD MARKETING “No farmers in any country in the j world to-day are more sure of getting their income than the dairy farmers of New Zealand,” said the Hon. W. Nash, Minister of Finance and Marketing, speaking to a largely attended meeting at Hunterviile yesterday. Tracing the history of the guaranteed price legislation, Mr. Nasli said that the dairy farmer had doubled tne volume of production between 1924 and 1934. "But in spite of the fact, that he had done all lie could the price level, as it was then, meant that half the dairy farmers of the Dominion were not able to meet their commitments,” Mr. Nash added. 'Put in colloquial language, half the dairy farmers were bankrupt, not because they had not done their job, but because they had done it." Mr. Nash contrasted the position ol the dairy farmer of to-day, guaranteed a price of something just under 16d, with the man who had to accept 6d, 7d, and 9d a pound. He said that as the dairy produce was loaded on io the ship the Dairy Products Marketing Department called from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand the lull amount of value for the produce at the full rate of the guaranteed price. That money was sent by cheque to the headquarters of the bank with which the factory did its business. Thus, within two or three days of the produce being on board ship, the full amount was available to the factory. That was very much different to what it was before the guaranteed price system had been applied, he said. Representatives of Tooley Street firms waited on dairy factories; there was a lot of haggling. Some factories decided to consign their produce. The bank would advance 80 per cent., and if something more came along the dairy farmer would get it, but he never knew until the end of the year what he was going to get. The present completeness of the

marketing organisation at the London end was also detailed by Mr. Nash, who said that the produce was handled by a number of Tooley Street firms in a way that prevented speculation and assured to the consumers of the United Kingdom that they were getting the genuine article. The Government had saved £289,000 in marketing alone. Not only that, it had been able to maintain prices at better levels. “They tell you what good prices you are getting on the London market, but half of them will not admit that the better prices are due to better marketing organisation established by the New Zealand Marketing Department,” he said. “Our control is so complete that even when the produce is aboard ship we can divert that ship to the port where it is most profitable for the butter to be unloaded." Agreement With Germany. A brief review was given of the agreement entered into with Germany with regard to the purchase by her ol New Zealand butter. Diversion of 58,000 boxes of butter to Germany in December of last year and January of this year had had the effect of raising the London price 4s a hundredweight. Each penny a hundredweight meant an increase of £12,000 to the dairy industry, Mr. Barclay, M.P. for Marsden, who had made a close study of the marketing of dairy produce by New Zealand, had come to a conclusion that price realisations in London had gone up a million pounds because of better marketing organisation, Mt Nash stated.

When the agreement with Germany I was being negotiated, the representa- . lives of the German Government : eventually decided to buy New ZeaI land butter at the London price, not i the guaranteed price, Mr. Nash stated. 1 "They paid us more for our butter than they need have paid for butter from Denmark,” he added. He said that the various matters he had mentioned helped to create the surplus in the Dairy Produce Marketing Account at the end of the year. Profit, Not a Loss. Following Mr. Nash, Mr. Ormond Wilson, M.P., Labour candidate for the Rangitikei electorate, said that when the guaranteed price plan had first been mentioned, and Mr. Langstone had said that the dairy farmers would be getting Is 3d, Sir Alfred Ransom had complained that it would cost the country fourteen millions Others had set the loss higher than that. “But the complaint to-day, after the dairy farmers have been getting something round about Is 3d, is not what it has cost the country, but the profit the Government has made out ol the scheme," Mr. Wilson added. (Applause ). __________