PRODUCERS’ CLAIMS

Waikato Times, Volume 196, Issue 22568, 23 March 1945, Page 2

PRODUCERS’ CLAIMS

INCREASED RETURN FOR GOODS (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Thursday “Now that the door is open for a wholesale revision of awards the farmer, in the common justice, has the right to ask for an increased return for his produce,’’ said Mr W. Lee, president of the Otago Provincial Council of the Farmers’ Union, and Mr A. C. Leary, chairman of the Otago Primary Production Council, in a joint statement issued in regard to the recent wage pronouncement. “Farmers do not forget that the increased prices for New Zealand produce were paid by the British Government specifically to increase production, but the New Zealand Government refused to pass on the increase becausce of stabilisation. This excuse no longer applies.” The statement added: “We have the greatest sympathy with the man with a family who has endeavoured to make ends met on a wage approximating £5, but we believe adjustments could have been made to meet the needs of the man with children without departing from the general principle of stabilisation. A vicious cycle must now commence and it is difficult to say where it will stop. All costs will soar, and the effect on manufacturing and building costs of a fortnight’s paid holiday, which has added approximately 6 per cent to all stages of production costs and not less than 10 per cent on the finished article, will serve to illustrate the result of one small wage increase, for undoubtedly that is what the paid holiday amounted to.”