DAIRY CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 52, 25 November 1926, Page 14

DAIRY CONTROL

SOME STRONG COMMENT

That from Britain’s point of view the fixing ol prices was economically wrong and threatened its very life blood was the opinion expressed yesterday by Mr. A. 11. Mackrell, president of the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce Association. . "This year lias witnessed the birth of an infant in our midst armed with, authority and powers which it is wedding in such a way as to well nigh wreck the household,” said Mr. Mackrell. “I refer to the Dairy Control Board set up with absolute power to seize and market in any way it thinks fit the exported dairy produce of the Dominion. This infant when conceived by its parents was much less harmful than it lias proved to be since its birth, and the discovery of the huge powers it is allowed without question to exercise. It is surely teaching its parents, its grand and great-grand parents how to do things, and is quickly providing for itself a lash which will not only bring about its own destruction, but a family disruption from which it will take a long time to recover.”

Continuing, Mr. Mackrell said it was argued by the advocates of control that prices were onlv to be regulated and not forced up. The fact remained that if New Zealand succeeded in controlling the price of foodstuffs sent to Britain, other countries would attempt to do likewise, and soon the Homeland would find itself throttled and strangled bv the dictation of prices at which it was to buy its food.

He added that the past few months of controlled prices of New ■ Zealand’s dairy products had been sufficient to show the attitude of the British consumer, and the disaster that awaited New Zealand if it still insisted upon pursuing the mad policy of dictating the prices of foodstuffs to Britain.