828 Speech by the Minister of AoRicrLTrRE. [Dec, 



be did — (laughter) — it would not be tbe consumer who would 

 benefit. If the farmer said: " No, that is really too much; oh 

 no, I could not accept that," it would be merely the middleman 

 who would take the profit, and the consumer would be no better 

 off. When I hear this talk of profiteering, and I think 1 

 have heard of it especially with regard to milk, I am struck by 

 the fact that with regard to last winter's milk production there 

 was a very elaborate inquiry by the Costings Committee of the 

 ^Ministry of Food, and that Costings Committee, of a Ministry 

 which is generally supposed by farmers to be none too friendly 

 to agriculture, reported that the average cost of production of 

 milk last winter, taking the country as a whole, was 3s. IJd. per 

 gallon, whilst the average price that was paid to the farmer, 

 taking the country as a whole, was 2s. 8d. There is a shocking 

 case of profiteering by the farming community. (Laughter.) 

 Of course, it is impossible to prove what may have taken place 

 in this or that individual instance, but I am convinced that the 

 charge of profiteering, generally speaking, is both baseless and 

 unfair. (Cheers.) But that does not mean that we want to go 

 to the other extreme, and say that farming is doing badly, 

 because undoubtedly prices are better than they were, relatively, 

 and farmers are doing better than. they were before the War; 

 and a very good job too for the nation. (Cheers.) It is about 

 time in the national interests that farming was doing better. 

 (Cheers.) In that connection I want once more to beg of 

 farmers that they will not be crying wolf too often, or saying 

 that the outlook is black and absolutely hopeless," or that 

 " farming does not pay," because, in the first place, it is not 

 true, and, secondly, because it really does injury to the industry 

 to which, as I say, we wish to attract the best men. Farmers 

 grumble a good deal about the rise in cost of production, but I 

 do not hear them boast very much about the rise in cost of 

 produce, yet there is a little balance on the right side. And I 

 want them to realise this, that Labour is entitled to a share 

 of that. (Hear, hear.) 



The Claims and Rights of Labour.— This is my last point. 

 The relations of labour to production is by far the most serious 

 problem which confronts agriculture to-day. It is a vital 

 question; it is urgent; it is unescapable. There is no subject 

 in the whole range of agriculture in which I am so deeply con- 

 cerned and interested as the labour problem, and there is no 

 subject with regard to which my sympathies are more deeply 

 aroused. Farmers owe a very great deal to their skilled 



