WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 March 1924, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

THE DAIRY BOARD. A DELAYED APPOINTMENT. (Special to “Guardian”.) WELLINGTON, .March 8. The personnel of the Dairy Control Board has been completed at last by the appointment of Mr ,T. R. MaeEwnn as the representative of the mercantile and exporting interests. The delay in making this appointment has provoked considerable comment and some adverse criticism, directed chiefly against the Minister of Agriculture, who. poor man, has been receiving during the last few months rathei more than his share of attention in this respect. In this particular case, however, he seems to have invited most of the strictures that have been heaped upon him. During the Prime Minister’s absence from the Dominion his colleagues, each in his own Departments. seem to have gone very much their own way without any punctilious regard to the obligations they owed to Air Massey's locum tenons. Mr Noswortliy had emerged from the light in the House of Representatives over the Dairy Conrol Bill with all the honours that belong to victory and not unnaturally be sought to press his advantage to what lie deemed its logical conclusion. The regulations he framed for the election nf the producers’ representatives on th" Board ensured that only oandidaes favourable to compulsion would be returned. This surely should have satisfied him of iho safety of his scheme. UNANIMITY DESIRED.

But even after nine supporters of compulsion had been elected by the producers, and two Government- nominees had been appointed to the Board, Mr Noswortliy si ill feared that the admission of a single advocate of the oilier point of view would imperil the realisation of his heart’s desire. The Vet had provided I hat Hie “GovornorGeneral in Council," which means, of course, the Government, might appoint as a twelfth member of the Board a representative of the mercantile and exporting interests, and when those interests were invited to nnminale a suit,able person they unanimously selected Mr .1. B. Mae Ewan. who had been a strong and perfectly frank opponent of compulsion. The nomination did not accord with Mr Nosworthy’s idea of the situation and after some little delay he asked the interests concerned to submit further names. This they declined to do representing to the Minister that no other person was so well qualified by experience and ability as Mr Mae Ewan lo represent theta on the Board. Then there was a prolonged .silence, ended after Air Massey’s return lo the Dominion, by an unofficial intimation that the additional names were required onlv as a matter of form to save the Governor-General’s prerogative and the Minister's face. The mercantile and exporting interests were ready to oblige and now Mr MncIv.van has been appointed to the Hoard. So closed an interesting and entertaining episode in the development of State control of industrial enterprises in Ibis country. EMPIRE TAXATION. Mr Massey’s comments upon Air Phillip Snowden's analysis ol the taxation per head of population in

various parts or *h<- British Empire is ; weeping rathei than precise. The statements of the Chancellor oi the Exchequer to which the Prime Minister takfs particular exception are those dealing with the. taxation of Britain. New Zealand and Australia in which he declares that the per capita annual coni ribution in Britain is only 2s Pd more than that in New Zen kind end that the contribution in Australia is actually Cl (Is fid less than that in the Dominion. Mr Snowden, he says, has not taken into account tile million and a half by which taxation was reduced in ibis country last year and has left the Maoris, who hear their fair share of taxation, out of his calculations altogei her. The New Zealand taxation, the Minister claims, on March dl last was til 17s Btl per lie:,d of population -only 7s 7,1 less, it will he observed, than the amount stated bv Mr Snowden -and now is hii thi'r reduced : hut by how much "ii is impossible to say accurately until after the end of the linatieial year.” Apparently there is not a great deal wrong with the (haneellor’s figures, which, so far as New Zealand is concerned, must apply to th,’ financial year 1022-2,1 and until a common basis of comparison is available no definite conclusions can he reached. TOWN AND COUNTRY.

The Prime Minister’s broad-easted reply io a letter which appeared in an article contributed to the “Evening Post” lasi week, complaining of what the writer considered the lavonrnhlc treatment of the farmers at the expense of the community, breaks no fresh ground. Mr Massey clings persistently to Iho belief that the farmers pro,luce practically all the wealth of the. country, and, having satisfied himself on this point, he quotes John Stuart Mill and Adam Sindh confidently in justification ol his kindly consideration of the man on the land, hi this respect ho has rather the advantage of his critic, who did not give

sufficient weight to the fact that the farmer pays laud tax whether he makes a profit from his holding or not. The grievance of the average town dweller is not that the average farmer pays insufficient taxation, but that tlio Government’s very special care lor his welfare imposes heavy burdens unon the rest- of the community.