Dairy Industry Opposed To Lump Sum Payments Says Board Chairman

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 42, 30 April 1948, Page 5

Dairy Industry Opposed To Lump Sum Payments Says Board Chairman

That the dairy industry was utterly opposed to the continuation of lump sum payments, was made clear by the Chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, Mr W. E. Hale, at the Bay of Plenty Ward Conference of the Board at Whakatane on Wednesday. “What we all want to see is that the full price received in London for our produce is credited to our Industry account,” he said.

Some of those present would remember that when the proposal for setting up the Dairy Products Marketing Commission was being discussed, he went on, delegates raised the point as to whether the hands of the new body would be tied by the clause in which the Commission had to take note of directions from the Minister in regard to Government policy. “It has been suggested recently by seme in the industry,” continued Mr Hale, “that this might mean that the Commission could be instructed to agree to a continuance of lump sum payments for the future. At the Conference, Government trade policy was defined as being something to be invoked only when New Zealand required urgently from a country some commodity which that country was unwilling to supply, unless we shipped dairy produce to Jier. “The particular instance given was jute. It was pointed out that both the wheat and the sheep farming industries required jute in considerable quantities; that India was not willing to supply us with the required quantity, unless we shipped a certain amount of butter in exchange, and that Government trade policy would require the exchange to be made. That was a commonsense outlook, appreciated by the industry, and so long as the clauseoperates in ; that way, no trouble, will arise.”

“It would be unthinkable that the question of continuing the policy of lump sum payments should be brought within the definition of Government trade policy, and the industry’s viewpoint has always been so clearly expressed on that issue, that I cannot for a moment imagine any attempt being made to justify a continuation of lump sum payments under today’s conditions.”