DAIRY CONFERENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 680, 24 June 1914, Page 7

DAIRY CONFERENCE.

MARKETING produce. A meeting of dairy company representatives was held'at Palmerston ' North on Wednesday to consider recommendations adopted by a committee, elected by delegates representing 56 dairy companies which met at Hawera in April last, in reference to the better marketing of dairy produce. Mr A. Morton, who presided, expressed his pleasure at seeing such a large and representative meeting. It was, he sad,, the largest meeting of the kind evefc held in the DominHe did not tnink thet anyone could gainsay but that there had been among dairy companies a feeling that they were not getting the treatment : they should get in regard to market-? ing their produce. During the last two seasons the dissatisfaction had become more defined, hence the meeting held at Hawera. The recommendations agreed upon by the committee appointed at that meeting had been adqptsd almost unanimously. There was a minority report bat agreed upon by only a small proportion of the committee; They had been told from time to time that their butter and cheese wore equal in quality to the Danish makes. If that was so, and the Danes, by their perfect system of organisation, obtain higher prices, it seemed (o him the time had arrived for .them to eet up a similar organisation and appoint a London Board, one of whose duties would be to fix prices from week to week and induce brokerß and buyers not- to sell below them. There should also b9 a Dominion Board,which should be in touch with the London Board. With this arrangement a company might market its own output and have prices fixed,fo it. To carry out.the. scheme outlined it would be necessary to have a strong financial organisation in order to.meetthe estimated annual expenditure of £IO,OOO pe annum, or ope per cent, on the pro-duce-mirketed. He moved the adoption of , the - recomendations referred to. . A discussion then took place on the committee's report—tha adaption of which, was moved by the chairman, and the minority report—which lasted the whole of the day during which such diverse views as that the adop-tion*.-.of the recommendations, would antagonise tha Home merchants; that the capital of the proposed company would be lost; that the proposed capital was unnecessarily large, and that it was necessary to fix prices for the sale of produce in the Home market and that a good article would sell at a fair price in the present open market; that much of the butter and cheese ought to bring as good prices as the Danish.; and that butter and cheese made from comparatively rough new pastures could not bdfquite as good as from the clean old pastures oflDeumark; ' A majority of the delegates, however, were pronouncedly in , favouur of co-operative action as advised in the committee's recommendations and on taking them clause by clause ,they Were 'agreed to with amendments. The principal recommendation is—That' there should bn two Boards, one in New Zealand, "The Board of Management," and the other in London, "The London Board," with the object of controlling and marketing our New Zealand dairy produce: The Board of Management to have .supreme control, but to'giye the London Board very large discretionary powers. The Board of Management to . have the appointment of and control of the London Board,and its Board's services be available for those who wish to use other markets than ; the UnUed Kingdom. y - '.i That t sere be an annual meeting of the companies participating in ,this schema and that such * meeting elect a Board which shall elect the London Board. •That the basis; of- allotment of shares be altered from One, and -onehalf shares for each ton' of cheese and that Bhares for each ton of but ter to one half bf a Bhare for each ton of cheese and one share ftfr each ton of butter. That />nly one co-operative and proprietary dairy companies and Bacon companies be permitted to become shareholders. That this company refrain from trading and other firms of profitsharing save as provided for by the articles of association. A committee consisting of Messrs Morten, Forsyth, Marx, Powdrell, a-d Corrigan was sot up to place the subject before the several companies and form the company if the former consent.