DAIRY PRODUCE CONTROL BOARD.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1926, Page 2

DAIRY PRODUCE CONTROL BOARD.

METHOD OF ELECTION. Before the Dairy Produce Control Act was brought into force it was first submitted to a referendum of the dairy farmers, and the basis of voting at tbo referendum was, one producer one vote. The Act also provides that nine members of the Dairy Control Board shall bo elected by tlic dairy farmers from time u> time, and that each producer shall have one vote. Although the Dairy Control Board has come into existence oil the basis, the Chairman of the Board, Mr Grounds, is now very, anxious that the method of voting should bo altered. In the first place he wants to grade the value of each producer’s vote according to the number of cows he is milking. If, for instance. one farmer is milking 200 cows and, is neighbour only 20, the former is to have ten times the voting strength of the smaller man. When asked for his reason, he states that the former contributes an annual levy to the Board ten times as great as the i smaller man and should therefore have * voting strength accordingly. But that is not all; like Oliver Twist ho comes back and' asks for more. Instead of allowing the producers to exercise their votes individually, lie wants them to allow their Factory Directors to do tlie voting for them, a.s it "ill, in his opinion, get a simpler and better reflection of the feeling of the industry. In all seriousness he is asking Parliament to do these things. Although the Board already lias the power to compulsorily seize and sell a man’s goods against his wishes, it now wants to be able to do so without that man being able to register liis individual vote against the Board’s action. The whole thing is of course prepotserous, and yet Mr Grounds lias just authorised the issue of the Board’s monthly newspaper to over 50,000 dairy farmers, endeavouring to point out that a majority of the industry wants these things done. By the industry lie means the quantity of butter and cheese exported ; hut lie must bo again reminded that the dairying industry does not consist of so much lintter and'cheese, hut of some 50,000 genuine dairy farmers, and that over two-thirds of tlscin definitely want to retain the right of voting for their own member on the Board. Although there is not the slightest chance of Parliament granting Mr Grounds’ requests, why'is it that he is so anxious to alter five present democratic method of election ? Is it because he is afraid of the next by-election in August- which will show plainly what the producers are thinking of the Board’s compulsory marketing scheme ?