DISASTER TO DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 September 1923, Page 4

DISASTER TO DAIRY INDUSTRY.

(To the Editor). Sir, —It is quite obvious that the litllo coterie which engineered the Dairy Produce Export Control Bill through Parliament do not wish to see the compulsory clauses of the measure brought into operation at once. They know perfectly well that such a step would bring about an irresistible demand for the repeal of the Bill. But disaster to the dairying industry in the near future is none the less inevitable because the promoters of the masurc fear to carry their scheme to its logical conclusion. Our dairying industry has developed amazingly under a system, which, though doubtless not perfect in some respects, lias encouraged free individual effort and healthy competition. But now a party of rash experimenters, who already have led Iho producers into malty disastrous ventures, have conceived the idea that they are wizards of finance, shipping experts and prodigies of mercantile knowledge all rolled into one and capable of revolutionising the whole course of British trade to the abiding advantage of tiio dairy farmers. AI any of these gentlemen have no authority whatever

to act for the producers. They represent only themselves. Yet if no one speaks out on the matter plainly some of them will he found occupying seats on the controlling body. Throughout the efforts to Tiring about tills combine there have been persistent attempts to discredit tile honesty and business capacity of the British firms that handle our produce. A campaign of this kind has been going on for years and its promoters have redoubled their activities since they have received (he countenance of people in high places who ought to have known better. flatly of these British firms liavo been established for very many years and their organisation and equipment are unrivalled and their connections are world wide. Their operations cover many lines of produce, of which butter and cheese are hut two, and of which New Zealand butter and cheese are but a portion, in some eases only a small portion. The basis of their system is honest trading onlines of healthy, open competition,'and they abhor the suggestion of combines of any sort. The conduct- of their business rests on the very highest, traditions of British commerce and they offer facilities for trade which arc not excelled in any part of the world. They either purchase our produce outright. or they handle it on consignment, in most cases preferring flic latter course. They are aide, because of the- varied nature and extent of their operations, to render the dairy farmer extensive and efficient services for a charge of only 2} per cent commission. These services are much greater than the uninitiated imagine. They include all the generally recognised services of agents, the payment of many charges, the risk of bad debts and the most liberal financing free of interest. With the advent of the Control Hoard, ail additional and amateur middleman, those charges will lie at least doubled. The British firms have served us well and honestly and have assisted to build up our industry rapidly and on sound lines, and now they are being

| told in effect that they arc unscrupil--1 lous rogues who have been robbing us for years, and Limb we have set up a great combine which will deride I which of them shall be allowed to j handle our produce, wliat quantities j they shall bo allowed to have, at what ; time, at what price and how it shall be sold. i Is it conceivable that ihe mailer "ill rest there. Can anyone »n: 1 for tme moment that these long estab- ' lished trading firms, which have been ' accustomed to manage their own aftairs and which have large unrestricted business dealings with many other | count l ies, will risk the destruction of their whole business by placing themselves at the mercy of a combine, which one day may become a socialistic instrument for I lie abolition of all private ownership. j The mere suggestion is ludicrous. These linns will assuredly turn the • whole of their enterprise, experience and financial resources towards ihe development of other sources of supply. . Such sources are right at their hand I waiting for their attention and capital. I The .Argentine already has appeared as a formidable prospective rival to New Zealand, and Siberia is emerging from its days of darkness. Their ini- i mouse areas, the great fertility of < their soil, their nearness to the Home 1 markets and their facilities for con- j slant supplies give our competitors , enormous advantages. Surely wc arc

not going to combat them by scrapping the successful system we have built up by years of patient toil. If we do so, for a certainty the firms that have stood by us, without delay will withdraw their experienced representatives from this country and use them and many others with abundance of capital in developing the dairying industry of the Argentine or of some

other country. in addition to the immediate ill effects of the loss of the goodwill of the distributors through the passing of the Control Bill, wc shall he faced in a very short time with n serious permanent lowering of prices that inevitably will follow upon the marketing of heavy supplies at the season that hitherto has been our special opportunity. Our only hope of eseape from disaster lies in an immediate and emphatic repudiation of the Control measure by the actual producers who do not subscribe to the fantastic ideas of the professional chairman. Fortunately the producers have an opportunity to save the industry and, representing a great number of producers who are Rincerel v convinced

that nothing but disaster can como of the controllers’ schemes, I strongly urgo every producer to record his vote on the measure and to think well for himself before he does so. If control is once brought into force there will he no hope 'of escape from the consequences. J am, etc., G. MAXWELL, Opunakc, Sept. 7th, 1923.