WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 3 May 1926, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

DAIRY CONTROL

THE PRODUCER'S' CONFERENCE

(Special to “ Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, April 30,

The conference of the delegates from the various dairy factories held here on Wednesday to suggest to the Government a method of electing the> members of the Dairy Hoard proved more or less a fiasco. The gathering was divided sharply into two camps, the supporters of ‘'absolute control” on one side and the friends of free marketing on the other, the absolute eontrolists apparently being in a substantial majority. Trouble began lrom the very opening of the proceedings. The Dairy Hoard, empowered by the Government to make all arrangements in connection with the conference had placed Mr William Grounds, its own chairman, in the chair and had decreed that the voting would be on the basis of tons of butter and cheese turned out by the factories represented, and not by the number of their suppliers. Produce, not producers, was to rule. The free marketers first took exception to Mr Grounds retaining the elmir without a vote of the delegates. Mr Grounds was obdurate. He was not there as chairman of the Dairy Hoard, he explained, hut as the duly constituted chairman ot the conference under the authority of the Government. I hen the free marketers urged that voting should 1)0 on the one man one vote principle, but again the chairman tehisril to lie moved. lit' declined to submit either proposal to the conferein e. It was his business to deride. Finally, alter a couple ot hours of wrangling the groat majority ot the free marketers retired and took no further part in the proceedings. lons of produce had won. WHAT IT ART, MEANS. The “ Evening Post,” which has striven hard throughout the control controversy to maintain a judicial attitude. now expresses itsell with increased vigour. “The Public,” it says, “know.-, now where it stands in this matter of usurpation by an elected hoard of the ancient rights of property. Whether the farmers like it or not. their produce, for export, can he taken from them and disposed of by the hoard. It this is so with meat (although in that ease the right has not yet been exercised), and it is to he so with butter and cheese, why not all other produce? The hoard may make a. financial success of such control. Hut if it should result in a serious loss, then the hoard cannot he held responsible. The farmer may sutler indirectly, hut the hoard cannot lie called to account. . . 'Pile farmers know full well that the prime purpose of all combinations, their own or any other, is to extract the utmost farthing that can he got out of the purchaser or consumer. . . Trouble will come when it is realised that all the talk of ‘Huy English Products’ only represents buying at strictly controlled prices and the creation of artificial scarcity by keeping hack supplies for the last farthing.” The most rabid of free marketers could sav no more. The “ Post.” however, does not admit that the stand against absolute control is yet irretrievably routed. It comforts itself with the reflection that Parliament cannot he silent on the question. WIIAT MAY HAPPEN. Tfic “ Post.” when it looks to Parliament to save the country from what it conceives to be a very hazardous experiment loses sight of the fact that the I .ahour Party in the House to a man regards favourably the principle of absolute control. Mr 11. E. Holland and his followers are a party of optimists and they look forward with high expectation to the time when they will have an opportunity to widely extend the socialisation of the industries of the Dominion without any pari ieular regal'd to the claims ol the Mother Country. If the .Prime Minister allows the strong element in the Cabinet favorable to absolute control to have its way Parliament will offer no effective opposition to the aspirations ot Mr Grounds and his friends. Mr Coates still is keeping his own counsel in the matter, hut there is a tooling abroad that he has some sort of compromise in mind and that he will not allow Lons ol produce to dominate the situation. The story of an appeal to the Full Court, re-told by the “Now Zealand ’limes” the other day, is not without material foundation and it is not unlikely the Prime Minister himself is seeking advice on the subject; from this point of view. The reluctance of the Government to hack up the Dairy Hoard with an Order-in-' Council tuny he fraught with more significance than is generally supposed. It is common knowledge that no less an authority than a. King’s Counsel has given it as his opinion that nliso. lute control cannot he legallv <n forced. The wheat question. I lie impending deputation from Canterbury to plead the cause of the tm happy wheat-growers and millers, who "'ant the duty on flour raised from Co per ton to £3 10s per ton in order that t!:o,v may earn a hare subsist {litre, is creating some little trepidation in the capital city. It seems only the other flay that the Hon W. Noswortliv. the Minister of Agriculture induced Parliament to raise the duty on flour from L2 Ills to L'.i b,v the solemn assurance that this would lie the hist use made of the tariff to holster up the wheit-l growing industry in the South Ishnl. Mr Nosworthy’s assurance was (run plete and emphatic and the country and House of Representatives accepted it as conclusive. Rut now another Minister of Finance has arisen, and anchor Government has taken office, and having shown themselves a little susceptible to pressure from the rural (on; litueneies, the local consumers i.»v murred tost the now Minister, who has neither Air Xosworthy’s intimate aerp.fintanee with the wheat ques'ion, nor htenacity of purpose, should be over-persuaded hy the deputation and grant its request. It is held strongly hy well informed people here, who ha to no personal purpose to serve in resisting the increase ol duty, that there is no sound argument from any source to justify the increased prices < that, would billow upon the increased duty. Tt is understood that very strong representations are being made to the ' .Monster on the subject and that tho 1 fcrth'< mitig deputation will lie followed by a counter deputation consisting of very practical peopto.