WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 March 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

DAIRY CONTROL. STILL RONE OF CONTENTION. (Special to “• Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, Alnr.-li IS. Dairy Control and its attendant jji’uhlems. in their various phases, still are the chief topics ol' discussion in cominercial and linaiicial circles here. Generallv the reduction ol prices with a view to expediting the sales ol New Zealand hatter and cheese is approved, hut there are business men here and there who • regard with considerable trepidation the prospect ol a permanent decline in the relative values ol the New Zealand products. Just the other duv Sir I liomas .MacKenzie told an audience of business men in Aue!;~

land that New Zealand blitter was admittedly better than Danish, and implied that its failure to realise at least the same price as the ‘■foreign article” was due to hu h of capable organisation and intelligent advertising. Though Sir Thomas did not press the point this surely was another rellection upon the administration of the Dairy Hoard, which lias had plenty of time and money at its disposal to establish a thoroughly comprehensive publicity campaign. it Air OroimJs i-liiims t<> have done this lie will be met bv the retort that his advertising lias been unequal to the -ask of overcoming the prejudice the past policy of the hoard has created. In commercial and financial circles, at any rate, the chairman of the hoard, is a persona ingrata. Til E GOVERN AIENT'S ATTITUDE. The Prime -Minister has taken particular pains to explain that when the Dairy Board was constituted the control of the dairy industry of the Dominion practically passed out of Unhands of the Government into those of the hoard. It is n little unfair, therefore, to charge him. as individuals on both sides of the present controversy are doing, with being both personally and politically responsible for the troubles that have arisen. There need he no doubt that -Mr Coates acted in good faith when he carried on in this respect the policy propounded by Mr Massey, his predecessor in office. What has placed him in a false position now is the insistence ol the Dairy Hoard upon assuming, quite unnecessarily, powers which Mr Massey expected to he invoked only in case of grave emergency. It was assumed the Dairy Hoard would exercise the same good common-sense as had been practised by the Meat Board. It is true that the Prime Minister had an opportunity to review the position after he came back from the constituencies with a mandate of his own ; but he missed the opportunity by choosing what seemed to he the line of least resistance. politically a comparatively venial offence. RESUSCITATING THE LIBERAL PARTY. The several meetings held in Wellington during the last two or three weeks for the purpose of resuscitating the Liberal Party, with its old name and with as many of its principles as survive, have not been very impressive gatherings. The promoters, for the most part, were moved more by the wrong doings of the Government and the menace of the Labour Party than by any burning devotion to the ideals proclaimed by Sir George Grey and vivified by John Ballance and Richard Seddon. The fact of the matter is that party politics in the capital city scarcely survive at all outside the ranks of the Labour Party and the columns of the morning paper. II there is harm at all in this Mr Massey is chiefly to blame. The Conservative leader during Mr Sechlon’s Liberal reign lived long enough himself to become the leader of a new and no less progressive Liberalism. The old piej lid ices and the old shibboleths, and consequently the old divisions, disappeared .nearly a decade ago. Ibis dees not mean a return to the two party system, but rather the creation ol a score of oarties, and ultimately a change in the metluul of administra„<iu that will make Parliament really representative ol the people. Meanwhile attempts to revive old parties in their old forms will not hasten the arrival of the political millennium. MANUFACTURERS C OMPLAIN.

Manufacturers hove naturally sympathise with those in Christchurch, who complain that the Government evades paying Customs duties itself by buying its supplies from British manufacturers and admitting them to the Dominion free of charge. , The Manufacturers’

Association of Canterbury has written to the Prime Minister protesting against this preferential treatment in respect to Government contracts in which neither a railway freight nor duty is paid. Apparently the association would have protection carried tfl its logical conclusion, ft would have the Government when purchasing goods from British manufacturers, add to the cost of its purchases an amount equal to the duty imposed at this end so that it might ascertain by how much it should increase the burden of the heavily laden tax-payers. To transfer the amount from one Department to another—from the Railways to the Customs, for instance—would serve no useful purpose, beyond complicating the accounts of the Treasury; hut demanding reparation from the taxpayers would go some way. at least, towards satisfying the demands of the Canterbury Manufacturers. The only real difficulty about the matter is that while taxation and the cost of living go up. wages and relief payments also must advance. The Minister's reply to the Canterbury Manufacturers probably will be a request for suggestions on this point.