PARLIAMENT

Lake County Mail, Issue 11, 6 August 1947, Page 7

PARLIAMENT

Points from Speeches

“.This Bill amends the main Act and allows any body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate, of which the members are such owners, to have stock killed and processed and shipped on their own account,” remarked Mr T. L. Macdonald (Oppn., Wallace), speaking on the Meat Amendment Bill in Parliament. “ That meets the requirements of the farmers

in Southland, and will enable them ' to operate as the Primary Producers’ Co-opprative Society has been operating in the Auckland province for approximately two years,” he added.

Mr Macdonald said the picture was still not quite brought into sharp focus. The question had arisen as to the allocation of space. The Primary Producers’ Co-operative Society had not got its own works. It was dependent bn o*ther works to handle its stock, and if there was congestion at the works, how was its stock going to be received 1 ? If its business warranted it, would it be granted a weekly or an annual allocation of space, or would

it have to accept space on a pro rata basis? Or what would be the basis? Those were things giving some concern to Southland farmers at the moment. Then there was the ..question as to just what a group of producers of the sort visualised by the board was entitled to under the meat export schedule, if such a group was the holder of a. meat licence. Quite a lot was embodied in the question, and that was one of the things that was giving concern to the producers of Southland who were embarking on the co-operative scheme of killing and marketing. “ I am glad to see the clause included to give the necessary facilities to the producers of Southland to carry on with killing and marketing on a co-operative basis,” he remarked.