A DANGEROUS INFANT

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12613, 25 November 1926, Page 6

A DANGEROUS INFANT

"WRECKING THE HOUSEHOLD”

DAIRY CONTROL BOARD’S POLICY DECLARED ECONOMICALLY WRONG The New Zealand Dairy Produce Control Board was yesterday likened to a growing infant wielding its power and. authority in such a way that it was likely to wreck the household of the Dominion. The simile was provided by Mr A. H. Mackrell (Invercargill), president of the associated Chambers of Commerce conference at Wellington yesterday, who said the marketing of our produce was presenting problems not insurmountable, but difficult. “This year,” he said, “has witnessed the birth in our midst of an infant armed with authority and powers which it is wielding in such a way as to well nigh- wreck the household. I refer to the Dairy Control Board set up with absolute power to seize and market in any way it thinks fit the exported dairy produce of the Dominion. This infant, when conceived by its parents, was much less harmful than it has proved to be since its birth, and the discovery of the huge powers it is allowed without question to exercise. It is surely teaching its parents, its grand and

great grand-parents, how to do things, and is quickly providing for itself a lash which will not only bring about its own destruction but a family disruption from which it will take a long time to recover. PRICE DICTATION “Britain, a manufacturing country, living by the importation and production of raw materials which it manufactures into finished articles and exports to all parts of the world, is largely dependent upon imported foodstuffs to feed its huge manufacturing population. Its whole national well-being is dependent upon an adequate supply of foodstuffs at a reasonable price, for it must compete in the open markets of the world with its products, and cannot pass on any increased cost of living that is forced upon it. “It is argued by the advocates of control that prices are only to be regulated and not forced up. Be thji as it may, the fact remains that if New Zealand succeeds in controlling the price of foodstuffs sent to Britain, other countries will attempt to do likewise, and soon the Homeland will find itself throttled and strangled by the dictation of prices at which it is to buy its food. DISASTER PREDICTED “From Britain’s point of view, the fixing of prices is economically wrong, and threatens its very life blood. The past few months of controlled prices of New Zealand’s dairy products have been sufficient to show the attitude of the British consumer, and the disaster that awaits us if we still insist upon pursuing this mad policy of dictating the prices of our foodstuffs to Britain. “I may sound pessimistic, but it is far from my intention to be so, as I believe, m this fair Dominion of ours, we have the finest country in the world, peopled with a pure British race proud of the country which has given them birth, strong in patriotism and in faith in the great future that lies before us. Ours is a great heritage, and it lies within our grasp to make this country the fairest and happiest of all the lapds of the earth.”