A NEW IDEA

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 89, 10 April 1934, Page 8

A NEW IDEA

’— SLAUGHTERING BOUNTY REDUCTION OF DAIRY HERDS The suggestion that it would be better for the Government to give a subsidy or bounty to dairy farmers who decreased their production by reducing the number of their dairy stock by slaughtering, rather than subsidise the production of butter and cheese, was made yesterday by a dairy farmer who has been considering the various schemes that have been put forward in an endeavour to save the dairying industry. By putting the above proposal into practice, production would automatically decrease, the British Government and the British farmers would be satisfied and the dairying industry of the Dominion would bo on a firmer footing, according to this farmed “ Giving bounties on the production of a commodity which is at present over-produced is economically unsound and is also expensive,” said this farmer. who admitted that he was an amateur economist. “I have studied the proposals which have been pouring in lately in regard to the dairying industry in this country and I think that any system whereby the dairy farmer is encouraged to maintain his production will never do any good. It does not get at the root cause of the present trouble in the industry -over-pro-duction. Directly the Government, starts encouraging the dairy-farmer to carry on production by means of a subsidy or bounty, the farmer in Britain is going to set up a howl. Even now, when we have no subsidy on production. the farmers at Home are pressing for a quota against New Zealand. A subsidy would give them good grounds for demanding action on the part of their Government.

Enormous Expense “The expense of a subsidy on butter produced would bo enormous at Id a lb., which would be a mere flea-bite and would make no difference at all to the bulk of the dairy-farmers. With the production of butter alone, we exported about 131,000 tons last year and consumed about 25,000 tons in New Zealand. A subsidy on this would cost £1,456,000 at Id a lb. Then there is cheese as well. The total cost of a subsidy would bo a big drain. “What I think we must do is to decrease production by encouraging the dairy-farmer to reduce his herd. It. is no good bolstering up the dairy industry rf Wo should encourage dairy-farm-ers to get out of the business. The soundest means of doing this, to my way of thinking, is for tho Government to subsidise the slaughtering of dairy stock. The costs would be considerably less and the benefits would be more tangible.—Hawke’s Bay Herald.