URGENCY MOTION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 60, 3 December 1937, Page 5

URGENCY MOTION

-Press Associatioiii)

Marketing Amendment Bill Before House HINT OF LONG SESSION

(By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, This Day. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, moved for urgency for the passing of the Primary Produets Marketing Amendment Bill in tn© House of Representatives to-day. Whon the question wa® put to the House it met with a most vigorous negative from the Oppositiou, who demanded a division. The Prime Minister 's motion was carried by .46 votes to 18, and urgency was granted. Judging from the vigour of the Opposition ;s negative to Mr Savage 's motion^ it appears probable that a long session is in prospect. Speaking on the second reading of the Bill, the Hon, J. G. Cobbe (Nat., Oroua) defended the statement published recently and in which it was contended that the deficit in the Dairy Industry Account would be only about £40,000. The .figures on which this amount was based, he said, had all been taken from the official returns, and although the Minister had treated the statement somewhat contemptuouisly he (Mr Cobbe) was still not sure that the estimate of £40, ,000 was incorrect. ' ' Comxnunistic Milegtone. " Mr Cobbe, dealing with the Bill itself, stated that it appeared tb him to be a menace to individual freedom. After discussing the various points in the Bill in detail, he said that the measure was a milestone on the Communiaric road. 'f he Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates (Nat., Kaipyra) charged the Government with do-i ing the opposite to what it promised the electors in the manifesto on guaranteed prices it issued before the eleetion. Aceording to ihe manifesto, he said, agreements were to be made wltt countries overseas first, and then tKe farmers weire to be consulted. Bat what" had happened was a commandeer of farmers' produce, a fixed priee, not a guaranteed price, being made for 12 months. Having accomplished that, the Minister had gone Home and negotiated an agreement with the United Kingdom Government. What had the Government done for the farmer of tht» country? Mr J. Robertson (Govt., Masterton): It has put him on his feet. " v Mr Coates continued to criticise the agreement -which Mr Nash had maae with the Home Government and said that the greatest danger faeing the farmer of New Zealand was a levy on our produets in the United Kingdom. Mr. Coates added that he could not understand a man who would sacrifice the sacred principle that what au individual produced was his own. He stated that the Ottawa agreement was th© only real step forward which had been made in our marketing in England. The Minister had raised the question of levies aud quotas. The Minister and the Government were definitely responsible for raising this issue. They had a ekimsy method of trying to carry out a fad, while text books stated that any form of barter was most cumbersom© and inconvenient, • 'Bureaucracy Runs Wild.' *

The Minister did not propose to bring meat under control because the meatmarketing scheme was satisfactory. All the elements of speeulation were in the meat trade to-day, and there was never any more speeulation in the butter trade than there was with meat now. Thus the Minister 's argument fell to the ground. Mr. Coates said it must be definitely understood that {bureaueracy would ruri wild under the provision in the Bill. The people of this country, buyers, sellers, distributprs and consumers, would come under a system which was definitely harmfuL It would in time wipe out the small shopkeeper and the small retailer. Tt contained steamroller tactics to wipe these people out of existence. It gave the Government power to enter into compeUtion with them and would reduce private enterprise until we had a universal system of State control. It seemed to him pzeposterous that the country should he communised as this Bill proposed. Mr. B. Roberts (Govt., Wairarapa) dealt with the old system of unregulated markets for fruit and th© waste which was thereby entailed. He said that the Bill provided for export of excess produce, and that consequently the local market could be controlled. There had been talk about Socialism and Communism, but, if groups of individuals could do better than an individual himself and refused to do so, the time must come when the Government would have to take action. The legislation now being brought into operation, Mr. Roberts added, was marking a now era in the smaller primary industries) which needed the control and regulation of a master hand. There was great opportunity for control, and the legislation provided funds from the Reserve Bank for marketing. He was satisfied that with regulation and control th© risks of the open market for the producer would be removed "and the small primary industries could be dev^loped. That applied to potatocs, poultry-farpiing, sinall fruits, ete.