Enlargement Of Dairy Board Membership Is Considered Essential

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

Enlargement Of Dairy Board Membership Is Considered Essential

“The 1947 Dominion Conference was emphatic that there should be enlargement of the Dairy Board to seven members,” said Mr W. E. Hale, chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, at the Bay of Plenty Ward Conference at Whakatane on Wednesday, “in order to maintain an executive head of the Industry capable of handling the growing weight of Industry Administration and Executive problems.”

The resolution passed by the Dominion Conference was that it be a recommendation a. That the Dairy a recommendation that the Dairy Board be reconstituted and that the personnel be seven elected representatives, b That the method of . election of members of the Board remain unaltered, c That the representation of members be North Auckland 1, New Zealand Co-op. Dairy Company 2, South Auckland 1, Taranaki/Palmerston North, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough and Nelson, 1, p Westland, Canterbury, Otago and Southland 1, and that, that in view of the fact that the Government now has three representatives on the Dairy Products Marketing Commission, in future no Government nominee' be appointed to the Dairy Board. “We have taken up this matter with the Minister of Agriculture on every occasion that I have been in Wellington but unfortunately we have not been able to get any definite reply from the Government concerning their attitude towards this request,” Mr Hale declared. “It is clear that legislation will be necessary to amend the Agriculture (Emergency Powers) Act, 1934, and Primary Products Marketing Act 1936, and before the Industry’s resolution can be given effect to the necessary legislation must be prepared and passed through Parliament. We have done everything possible to speed up the preparation of this legislation but today I am sorry to have to report to the Industry thht the Government either will not or cannot make up its mind -on the matter», “In my opinion the Board is handicapped by the failure of the Government to recognise the necessity for a larger Board in order to deal with the affairs of this great and, I hope, growing industry.”