DAIRY CONTROL

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1925, Page 4

DAIRY CONTROL

FREEDOM OR COMPULSION

WHICH SHALL IT HE?

(Contributed.)

The Dairy Produce Control Board has decided by a majority of the votes of its members to assume absolute control of the Dairy Produce manufactured in the Dominion for export as from August 1, 11)26. Whether or not the decision will require to be confirmed by Order-in-Cotmcil before it can become effective may be a question for legal argument. Meanwhile the point is not of any great importance. However it is brought into operation absolute control will mean that the Daily Board will have the exclusive handling of Dairy Produce intended for export from the time it leaves the factory door till it reaches the overseas" retailer. Its authority may go even further. It may impose prices and conditions of sale upon the retailer and it may even refuse him any guarantee ol supply. Sales at this end, which hitherto had constituted a very large part of the export business, will cease altogether. so far as the present sellers and buyers are concerned. The Board, however, will be free to engage in speculation how and where and when it pleases at the producers risk and expense. OVF.RWHELMIXG MAJORITY . The Board claims to have a mandate from the producers lor the revolutionary proceeding it is contemplating. Its Chairman and its other meinlieis favouring absolute control ha\c been, proclaiming up and down the country that they have an “overwhelming majority ” of the farmers behind them in their designs. One of their most active allies is repot tod to have said that the members of the Board wore unanimous in their decision, but il eballenjr(.d tliis gentleman probably would plead be bad been misunderstood. The “overwhelming majority’’ story, however, has been iterated aiul reiterated hv too many speakers and I rum toe luanv platforms to permit of such a convenient escape. The truth is that of the .5(5,000 producers entitled to vote at the referundnm held last year t< ' determine whether the act providing ■ for control should come into loree. only ’ ;! 1,708 troubled to return their ballol ■ papers, which had been sent to then * with stamped and addressed envelopes anil of these only 22,28-1 voted foi keeping the Act alive, while 9.2-,m vot t ed for its extinction. In other words ■ fewer than -10 per rent, of the oll.OOf ■ voters is being claimed as an overwind ining majority. THE COMMUNITY’S INTEREST.

Nor do these figures by any means expose the whole fallacy of the Board’s contention -that it speaks with the authority of the Dairy Industry. An industry which contributes., in round figures, twenty million sterling a ye.u to the export's of'the country cannot in a„y conception of justice be regarded as the rightful monopoly of the men who send the milk to the factory and draw the cheques for butter-fat. in the broadest economic sense it belongs to the whole community, whose interests are more or less efleeted by its progress and decline, and in the very narrowest of all these, a multitude of people, who touch it at one or another of its stages as worker, inves-

tor. trader or in some other capacity. If it were conceded, which it cannot he, that only the 21.0(10 of dairymen that voted for the act are entitled to a voice in the settlement of this great national questi, >.i. it still would remain to object that the issue was not

put plain before them at the poll- Let us look again at the laets.

NO COMPULSION

The Prime Minister from his place in Parliament, had staled that the -Meat jFoard luid been successful chiefly on account of its modern lion, and that it. depended on the new board how far tbi“ eomp'llsorv clauses should he liron;'.hl into iiporal ion. dat all H they succeed in getting as good men on the new board as on the old, as was intended,” he added with emphasis “ there will he nothing to fear I rum the compulsory clauses in the bill.” Ticit the lion. AY. Xosworthy. the author of the measure, following his chief, said he recognised that it would he some time before the Hoard invoked the t otivmlsory powers with which it is endowed, even if it did so at all. A day or two after the Al.oiister of Agriculture had spoken, Mr AA . Grounds, the present Chairman of the P.onrd, and now the chief apostle ol absolute control, added bis assurance on this point to those of the Ministers. “As in the ease of .Meat Control, he said in the course of an official statement. ” there will he no compulsion whatever, unless by more careful investigation, such procedure is proved to be absolutely necessary in the interests .‘of the producers. ” In view

of those statements few producers can

have gone to the poll with the fear of compulsory Control being introduced without some good reason for its institution being adduced. Til E RUTTER AY AY.

The Prime Minister’s appreciative allusion to the work ol the .Meat Producers Board has been more than justified by the achievements of that body. These Were well, and even modestly epitomised, by I lie Board’s London Manager in the evidence lie gave before the Capital British Pood Commission two months ago. The Board, Mr Forsyth said, was given complete power to take over the whole of the New Zealand meat but il had not been nec-

essary to out all these powers into operation. The Board had, however, been able, owing to its powers to act for the whole of the New Zealand Meat Producers, to reduce the cost of steamer freights, freezing charges, handling charges, and New Zealand

Railway freights. In addition, it was toneerued with stimulating the production' of New Zealand Meat by extending markets, supervising the grading of meat, watching the loading and unloading of all meat in New Zealand and Britain, with a view to improving the condition in which it was marketed, and generally taking all steps to loster the industry. AN INSPIRING EXAMPLE.

Surely what has been accomplished by the -Meat Producers Board, without disorganising trade and commerce and with, .great advantage to the whole community, could he neeom.plised by the Dairy Produce Board. The statutory authorities of the two bodies are practically the same. The Alent Producers Board, as Mr Forsyth told the Food Commission were given complete power to take over the whole of the New Zealand meat; but in its wisdom. after thoroughly examining the position, it decided it would render the best service to the producers and the State by reorganising the existing system, removing Their defects and adapting them to changing circumstances. not by destroying them and setting up in their stead an entirely experimental system without knowledge or experience to vouch for its success. Tt has been left for the Dairy Produce Control Board to attempt this hazard and if it persists in its present proposals the public in general and the producers in particular may pay heavily for its hardihood.