GUARANTEED PRICE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 3 August 1937, Page 14

GUARANTEED PRICE.

SPEECHES IN OPPOSITION. WELLINGTON, Aug. 2. Guaranteed prices were described as “vicious” and “unsound” by Mr E. Windley at a meeting of the MakaraHutt Valley provincial executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. He contended that a policy of guaranteed prices was not a solution or the taimers’ troubles, and that the increased pricos farmers were now asking tor tho current season’s butter and cheese would merely aggravate their difficulties. Farmers, he said, were urging the Government to do the very thing they said was unsound. He believed the Government would increase the guaranteed price, but that was simply because it was a political move to keep the party in power. But this would merely add further trouble to the ultimate rosult. Every farmers’ executive in the coun-

try, said Mr Windley, should consider putting something forward that was going to abolish such a vicious and unsound scheme as tho guaranteed price. Farmers were anxious about rising costs. They -wanted an increased income ; hut a farmer wmuld he no better off—in fact, lie would be a great deal worse off, Mr J. Maher said that the Government had set the farmers’ standard for a start, and the Farmers’ Union ivas endeavouring to bring before the Government the right view of costs. When the Government commandeered one of the primary industries, it simply meant that there was created a mass of barnacles which added to the burden of the farmer. It was significant to note that the only industry that had not moved forward within the last year was the dairy industry, and had it not been for the Government taking over the dairy industry the farmers would have received a higher price.