DRASTIC MILK REGULATIONS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 426, 15 November 1918, Page 1

DRASTIC MILK REGULATIONS.

DAIRYING INDUSTRY MENACED.

(By 8. Oldfield, Organising Secretary, Franklin Sub-Provincial District, Farmers' Union.)

The methods adopted by the Wellington City Council to secure a supply of cheap milk for City requirements are, without doubt, the most drastic and far-reaching that it is possible to conoeive. The Wellington City Council arrogated to themselves the right to supply the population of that city with milk at a price regardless of the existing values. The Board of Trade fixed the price for city supply at ten per cent, on pre-war figures; but the value of whole milk having advanced some 60 or 80 per cent, it naturally followed that the supply for the city dwindled. The City Council then decided to take over the whole of the milk-supply business and started a depot; but, finding that the farmer preferred to supply cheese or butter factories at the market value of the milk rather than supply the City monopoly at its fixed price, and, recognising that the prestige of the city was at stake, they concocted the following regulations which, with the help of the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. D. 8. McDonald) they have managed to make law, viz. : "In any borough in respect of which these regulations are in force it shall be unlawful for any person, whether as principal, agent, or otherwise (other than the Corporation of that borough, if thereunto lawfully authorised, and its servants or agents)—(a) To sell milk; or (bj To deliver milk in pursuance of a contract of sale made, whether within the borough or elsewhere; or (c) To have milk in his possession for sale, save under a license issued in that behalf by the Council of the borough, and in accordance with the terms and conditions hereof. "If and as long as these regulations are in force in respect to any borough it shall not be lawful for any person other than the Corporation of that borough, without the consent of the Minister of Agriculture, to erect, adapt, or equip any building within thirty miles of that borough as a new factory or establishment for the production of butter, cheese, condensed milk, dried milk, or any other product of milk "

A full account of this is given in the "Dairyman," September issue, entitled "Coercion and Tyranny." It will be observed that the regulations have been gazetted, which gives them the force of an Act of Parliament; also, that the regulations apply to every borough and town in the Dominion. They apply to new factories, as well as those already in existence, and there is practically no limit to the scope of their operations. The specified limit of thirty miles puts every district out of action. The question of price is not the most important. The point is that the liberties of the people are being taken away from them Now this is the time for every dairy farmer and every dairy organisation to protest against these drastic and Bolshevik regulations, which threaten to take away our birthright, which is the freedom of a free people. Can it be that these regulations have been framed in order to protect existing dried milk factories against the erection of more up-to date and modem factories'? In any case it ij important that the dairy farmer should be on his guard lest a sudden assertion of these powers deprive him of the right of free trade. Since these regulations have been adopted in the case of Wellington it is obvious that similar action may be taken in other centres.

This shows the absolute necessity of all farmers uniting together to support the only organisation capable of protecting the tanners interests "The Farmers' Union "andthrough our organisation at the next eleciiou to show the Honourable Minister for Agriculture that we have a say as to whether he shall again represent our great primary industry.