THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1921. SELLING THE PRODUCE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4345, 21 November 1921, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1921. SELLING THE PRODUCE.

By far the most important topic being dealt with by the leaders of the N.Z. Farmers’ Union who are now. touring the province and making speeches at various centres is the question of the marketing of the Dominion’s produce abroad. -The local marketing is a very small thing by comparison with our export trade, and the farmers’ chosen leaders would do well to concentrate upon the problem of getting the produce direct to the consumer, without adulteration or rt rake off” of profits by middlemen in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The travelling in the United Kingdom of so many thousands of New Zealanders during the late war has resulted in much enlightenment on the subject of our poor selling methods, but the same factor has, made us wise to the herculean nature of the task before our producers. The proprietary firms of middlemen are enormously strongly entrenched, some of them regularly supplying as many as 2000 selling agencies throughout the United Kingdom. Any man with a sound business training will at once recognise how hard it will be successfully to combat concerns so well established. But it can and tnust be done, otherwise this Dominion is in danger of losing all it has laboriously attained at heavy cost and years of thought and labour. Captain Colbeck clearly sees that the shipping, firms have their hands on the throttle lever, and can command the situation as they choose. The producers must, in time, control sufficient shipping to accommodate the bulk of the produce, but for various reasons it would probably be wiser to steer well clear .of all State action in the matter, and be entirely self-reliant and independent. The cost will be heavy, but a farthing per pound on but-ter-fat and a fraction on meat, wool, and other exportable produce would provide a substantial nucleus of a fleet fund, to be added to by share moneys. The getting of the Dominion’s produce to the overseas markets, and the efficient handling of it once there, are two things worthy of the whole energies of the various farmers’ organisations in New Zealand, and, coupled with a system of agricultural banks, such as the admirable institutions evolved by Germany and adopted by Denmark, should place the producers in a better position to face future crises than they have ever yet been in the history, of New Zealand.