DAIRY CONTROL MATTERS.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17169, 28 March 1927, Page 7

DAIRY CONTROL MATTERS.

A. E.

ROBINSON,

[To The Editor.'J j Sir, — Many complaints reach me I of suppression of correspondence re farming matters hy certain newspapers. The following unpublished reply to a particularly unfair editorial in an Auckland paper is of general interest and I beg space for it in the interests of fairplay. "Not only the dairy farmers are getting angry over the recent butter fiasco. Dairy farmers endorsed the Dairy Control Board's late policy by an actuai majortity Ibeside which the Jpresent Government majority was petty. They may well respond in the words of the propbet: 'We do well to be angry!' But a certain section of the press which puts itself in the place of the other party to the controversy, is- also angry and if the ordinary man in the street undex*stood how detrimental ■ to New Zealand's interest will be the huge loss incurred through this defeat snatched from the lap of victory, the general pu'blic would be most angry, as it is the greatest sufferer. The' dairy farmer is only a vessel communicatrng prosperity to New Zealand as,a whole and1 the loss to this country froin the slump which had been so confidently prediceted is, perhaps, under-estimated hy anti-controllers at two million pounds this year. Heaven only knows what the ultimate loss will be before dairy farmers can clean up the mess of their business due to outside interference. Now, sir, you object to the press campaign being characterized as "interested propaganda." It is not said1 that the j Minister of Agriculture's attempts to i discover a boy's narae are wasted I time, but how ahout the name of \ the person responsible for . state- j ments in the cablegram from which j the butter agitation has been work- ; ed up? Is there any proof that the ; cablegram did not originate in New j Zealand is proved to be Ihe case ; Vvdth previous cablegrams in the j butter controversy ? Why -be caught j more than once, if not willing to he j eaught? Why such sirhplicity on ; the "party of so many newspapers? ! The heavicst indictment of 'the j press is its disregard of assentials ■ and intense concern over the Mlh ! i of the case. a reversal of sour.d j i nrgument which may he excused :-n ; i tl-.e unskilled:, but is pregnant with ! implication ,of conscious ■ weakness , i when indulged in editorially. Why j i has not the press concerned itself I with previous slumps in butter, as with the anti'cipation of this slump? Why no such concern over slumps in meat, the ten millions drop in wool last season, the occasional un- ' saleability of hides, or with the present x5r^ce tallow? "Why, above all, has it left practically unanswered the central statement of the Board's Chairman that the present statistical .position is quite sound, that, in spite of an accumulation of 600,000 to 800,000 hoxes of over 1.000,000 hoxes of all makes (twice the present holdings in Lori- | don which includc three unloaded ships' contents) and this in August at the height of the now dreaded "Northern season," in spite of reduced consumption due to the coal strke, in spite of our greatly increased supply, the position is hetter than.it was. this time last year and infinitely '"hetter than it was last "North'ern summer " The press is cob-webbing.Vthe whole subject, a certain proof of conscious weakness of argument. Now, sir, control has not suffered a death-biow and1 neither the press, the butter- agents, nor Tooley street can kill what is a progressive movement of producers to guard themselves against exploitation and to escape from economic slavery. It is an open secret that what has happened is only the first battle of the campaign and' that tlve next will be an attack on Boai'd members, but even if the enemies of contx'ol succeed in hurning up its last vestige, it must arise from the pyre as a voluntary movement, unhampered by political nominees, a movement which will take political advantage to force proprietary companies into line, Control is a naj tional necessity, th'e will of the ma1 jority, and I wish the butter trade joy of its recent work, for control will be the better ultimately of the present rather bitter purification.— I am. etc..

?rovincial Secretary, N.Z. Farm,ers' Union, 17/3/27. Auckland,