DAIRY INDUSTRY'S £4,000,000 CLAIM

Chronicle (Levin), 9 May 1946, Page 6

DAIRY INDUSTRY'S £4,000,000 CLAIM

Brief refereuce to the case in connection with local butter-" marketing, in which the dairy industry claims that the Government has uo l'ight to use industry money to hold the cost of butter sold in Neiv Zealand, was made by Mr. A. Linton, acting-chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, wlieu lie addressed the ivard c.onfereuce at Palmerston North on Tuesday. "As the Commission of Inquiry has not yet made its decisioii iu conneetion with local marketing kuown," said Mr. Linton, "the matter is really sub judice, and I caniiot commqnt 011 the faets. brought forward to auy extent. Broadly spieaking, the industry is figliting for a principle, that w'here the local consumer is to be subsidised, that subsidy should come from the people of the country as a whole, and not from the pockets of the producers. Our coutention was that if the Government poliey was to hold down the price of butter on the loeal market to ' the ejxtent of pence per pound, the money iiequifed for doing the job should come ftrom the Consolidated Fund and not i'ji'om dairy industry funds, because the special luinp sum payments made for ijieetiug stabilisation costs, are paid ij:ito the Consolidated Fund. The Board was determined to fight for that princjjple and its case was most/ ablv pul ijv tlie counsel it engaged. A very lurge suni of money is involved — sjeveral niillion pounds over the fouryear period — an.d we have dorie the very best we could 011 your behalf. "