WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1924, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

.W ARK ETINO .WETfIODS. THE LINLITHGOW RETORT. [Special To The Guardian.] WELLINGTON. .Inn. 11. Following so closely upon the adoption ol meat iind dairy produce export control in this country, the report < f the committee set up by the. Home Government and headed by Lord Linlithgow 10 inquire into the distribution and prices of farm produce was hound to arouse much interest and discussion hero. The “Dominion,” as in duty hound, linds in the report much reason for congratulating the Government and the larmcis who prompted the ;,m! Dairy Rrodui-o Export Control Rills upon the committee’s practical endorsement, as it say>, of their views. "It is becoming steadily clearer,’’ it claims, "that in promoting the co-operative group marketing of export produce, producers in this country are on the right track. Co-opera-tive marketing has been developed to an advanced point and is being practised with great success bv progressive European countries like Denmark. The one definitely practical piece of advice offered to American wheat farmers who are enduring had times owing to a restriction of markets is that they should udop! co-operative marketing.' Perhaps these are not exactly the enit-elii-dons the unbiased observer would draw from the facts, but they represent nearly enough the deductions i.f the sanguine partisan. A MORE CACTI nr si INTERPRETATION. The "Evening Post," while recognising the value of the Committee’s report and the signiUcanee of its recommendations. docs not overlook its more restrained passages. "Although much of the matter applies to eouditions in Groat Britain," it says, "certain, qu lions that have been raised possess an interest for the producers of New Zealand. Cor example, it will he learned from a Press cablegram published today thai th" Commission bolds that ’ambition-, schemes for co-operative marketing and distribution of produce by fanners to consumers are fraught with considerable risk, and should he caution sly applied.’ " This, the "Post” ol>-erves, does not go so far ato hat direct contact between producer and rniisuinor, bill it emphasises the hazards attendant upon such arrangements. The Linlithgow CommiUe.' believes that economies call he elleoled ill the co lh c tint i and distribution of produce in Great lfriiain, and th. "Post" thinks it more titan likely that this is the case in New Zealand. H point to the scandal of apples realising only 41 tie penny a pound ill the orchard and being soli] at. sixpence a ooiind in the shop as an instance for the n od ol inquiry here.

THERE AND HERE. The truth of the mailer is, of min -o that marketing conditions at Hi me. speaking generally and in tit.' somewhat narrowed sense that the Icim is being employed ill this diseU"ion, are even worse than the conditions in the Dominion. The subject was being discussed in the Louden newspapers some months ago. when it was shown that between the wholesaler's price and T ho retailor’s for some commodities in daily use, including meat, there was an increase ol from 2f’-0 in .Vlll par emit. It was this diseussioti that: led to tho appointment of the Linlithgow Committee and it is obvious there is crying need for the appointment of a similar committer of*int|Uiry here. The Government is properly concerned :. tile welfare of the producers, hut 'i should lie equally eoiuerned for Hie welfare of the consumers, who, since the cessation oi the activities ot the Board lII’ Trade, have been left practically to the tender merries of trader-, of all degrees. In London a week ■ r two hack Mr Massey instanced the enormous difference between the prev received by the New Zealand orchardist for his apples and the price paid bv the consumer tit Home, but tile reproach ill this respect would have fitted the Dominion unite as well as it did the Mother Country. NEARER HOME. The ” Dominion.” though it does not go verv deeply into the case uduiiltla.re still are evils to he overcome m this country. "This state ol affairs.

it savu "is not l.y any means eoiiiitted to the distribution ol agricultural pro duco. It exists iii nearly every avenue of trade. Practically every where, and nowhere more obviously than in New Zealand, Inr too mam members of the working population are engaged in services i.f collection nod distribution, and too few in actual production. Here anil lit other countries tin efhcieitl reorganisation oi collecting and distributing services would do much to cheapen these services, with great benefit to both producer and con sumer. At tin- same time, it would permit many who are now employed more or less unnrofitnbly to join the ranks of the actual producers oT wealth." All this, of course, is an indictment: of the collecting and distributing services under the cont rol of I he Government as well as of the shortcomings of private enterprise in the same direction. With a railway service successfully challenged in many directions by road transit, as the .Minister admitted in Auckland the other day, and with a moribund Hoard of Trade, not even pretending to discharge its allotted functions, it is no wonder these services are out of joint.