WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 April 1926, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

ETERNAL RUTTER. THE BOARD’S BOMB. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, March 00. Through the newspapers this morning Mr William Grounds, the chairman ol til i o Dairy Board, throws a hoinh into the camp ol the I' roe Marketing League. which lie evidently expects to bring about the ignominious discomt'orlure of that hotly. The homh itself, shorn ol its clamour and its frippery, is a comparatively harmless looking missile. It is in the hnpo of a cablegram from the London agency of the Board. ” Obtained,” the message runs. *• in writing front importers willingness establish credits in the name of Board.” I hen follow the names of seventeen London firms interested in the doings of Tooley St. -amply this and nothing more. But Air Grounds sees tar more in the message. ‘Everyone with an intimate knowledge of the inner working of the export lairy produce trade has known throughout this controversy.” he states as tiie custodian of all the confidences of the trade.' ‘‘that there would he no difficulty ahout finances under the Board’s policy. This we have asserted repeatedly, hut. notwithstanding, it '•as remained the centre point of criticism and misrepresentation. An explicit statement "as made again last week regarding finance. following which some critics had the temerity to declare that wo were wilfully misleading and that Tooley Street would not establish the credits as we lmd stated. That Tooley Street would go hack on the assurances that had been given was unthinkable to us. Events have once again proved that Tooley Street needs to lie protected from its so-called friends.” This is Air Grounds with his foot on the soft pedal. He strikes a more resounding note as lie proceeds. THE BOARD’S CRITICS. “If critics have enjoyed conjuring up a bogey, which they have played with almost affectionately, and which has again proved them to he wrong.” the chairman of the Dairy Board goes on to say. “we leaVe them with the pleasure as there can he few left for them. Suffice it here to snv that Tooley St. is pPainly a,ware of the advantages our system has to oiler to the legitimate distributor. That supplies will he guaranteed to them in accordance with their distributive outlets is all that tliev desire. The diffieiiltv under ex-

isting circumstance.- to secure these has been their greatest trouble. K.0.1i. buying has made the trade more speculative than ever. Serious disturbances to long established connections have been experienced, so that in the cud some of our host distributors, might have been forced to look for supplies from elsewhere. There was far more danger to the industry from this than anv prospect of merchants seeking supplies from other countries as a result of the Board’s policy. AVe know that in this connection the only wav to preserve our interests in any competition with other countries is to he premired to give better value and service for the money than anv of them. Welfare Leagues and other critics from their unvarying centre of inspiration, indicate with what restricted vision they approach the compulsory clause ol the Act. Possibly when their thought has. penetrated deeper they "ill realise how closely allied or interwoven are the policies of <omniilsion and protection. THE .MYSTERIOUS .MESSAGE. So much for Air. Grounds'.- Impassioned appeal. A business man. dissociated as far as may he from the ‘absolute control” controversy, -ecu this morning said that he could not pretend to have “llm intimate knowledge of the inner working ol the export dairy trade” which Air. Grounds without anv systematic commercial training claimed to possess. Mlial laid struck him most ahout the message published by tiie chairman of the Dairy Board, however, was its brevity. Tiie names of the firms that had undertaken to establish credits in the name of the hoard made a very imposing list. They represented < verything that made for fair dealing and stability. | But if was incredible that these firms i had promised to establish credits in j the name of till Hoard without impos-l ing certain conditions. No business' r< house did that -on of thing, j

and nit business iiiim expected ii in in' ilont*. It was (Oiinin that ii*i‘ message published liy .Mr. Grounds (lid not convey the whole puriinl of the arrangeJiicnt made between the firms eoneented and the Hoard's l.omlon representatives. Some essential particulars, which the farmers, at any rate, should have, were being withheld. The T.Oll- - firms were not corporations or philantiiropists. indifferent to their »wn interests, and merelv seeking to henefit tile New Zealand farmers liy pj'ovidimg them with funds. Mr. Grounds. this authority concluded, must either have suppressed part of tin* message from the Hoard's repre-

sentative in London or imported into it, good news it did not contain. The chairman of the Hoard. he added, might have it whatever way he pleased. UK IA I.ISM AM) COMMUNISM. A producer more intimately interested in the industry than the authority just -quoted had a wider ranee of complaints. He was content to leave the Loudon firms and the local firms to look after themselves, hut he wanted Letter treatment for himself and lor his fellow producers and he had no faith in the proposals nod methods of the Dairv Hoard. His latest griovanec, and at Llie moment liis greatest. was the method of voting proscribed hy the Dairy Hoard for the conference of dairy factory delegates to lie held in “Wellington on April 28th, to determine the proposal to firing the ward system into operation. The Hoard, as lie said, gave the franchise, not to the individual suppliers, but to tons of Initter. It had been shown to him that thirteen factories, with (>270 suppliers, turning out 20,883 tons of produce, had IC>7 votes between them, I or one vote to every 37 suppliers ;vhile j thirteen other factories, with (Hl2 suppliers, turning out (5-112 tons of proj duede. had only 77 votes, or one vote Ito every 37 suppliers. That, he declared. was a return to the iniquitous , plural voting system of the dark ages, which gave to the landed aristocracy opportunities denied to the workers. On the top of all this was the decision, ill advance, that Mr. Grounds should be the chairman of the conference. All this, he declared, might be acceptable to those who wanted absolute control, but to those who wanted control without compulsion it was anathema, the delusion of the socialist and the communist who •’would cast every mind in the same mould and make individuality ami enterprise cardinal sins. datry export control. The following note is taken from the "-Manchester Guardian” Commercial of the 21st iiist.. under the heading of "The London Outlook” : "On several occasions ! have pointed to the disturbance which would arise in the produce trades when the New Zealand Dairy Produce Control Hoard got thoroughly going. The Hoard s scheme to raise and maintain prices in this market of the primary! products of the Dominion came into I pr.Tf-ti'OtToperation at the beginning ofO this month, and absoliite control will i become 'effective on August Ist nest. ' 1

"At present considerable quantities of butter and cheese are lying in London, and the agents are awaiting orders as to the prices at which these goods are to be sold. Protests are l>oing made in the trade against this action, but the Hoard has statutory power to restrict supplies until we care to pay the prices they ask. Meantime trade is turning to foreign sources, “There is a risk that the workers of this country will resent the holding-tip of produce to rig the market, and they will consequently have less inclination to Huy British.’ as they are being urged to do. Australia lias a control scheme similar to that of New Zealand. hut it will he fatal to the producers’ interests if our people get the idea that foreign competing countries give them a better deal.”