MR. GROUNDS ATTACKED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 64, 7 June 1927, Page 9

MR. GROUNDS ATTACKED

“IRRESPONSIBLE STATEMENT” HON. J. A. YOUNG’S CANDOUR MR. COATES DEFENDED (Special to THE SUN.) WELLINGTON, Monday. "T ITTL.E short of a studied insuit to the Prime Minister,” was how the Hon. J. A. Young described recent remarks by Mr. Grounds, chairman of the Dairy Produce Control Board. Mr. Grounds, he asserted, had received a setback owing to the action of his colleagues on the hoard, and in his search for a scapegoat had lighted on the Prime Minister.

Mr. Young said he was indebted to Mr. Grounds for the opportunity of correcting the error that the failure of the policy of the Dairy Control Board to establish minimum price-fixing on the London market was due to Mr. Coates.

and that it was the purpose of the Government to break down the board. “CLOUDED THE ISSUE” “For some time past he has consistently clouded the issue. He has not differentiated clearly between the Dairy Control Board as a political Institution and board policy as formulated by members. To imply infidelitv to Mr. Coates toward the statutory right of the dairy farmers of the Dominion, to say whether they should or should not determine to create a board to direct or control the marketing of their export produce, was not only unfair, but fp.r from the truth. The small farmers of this country had no better friend in Parliament than the Prime Minister.” AMAZING STATEMENT Mr. Grounds’s “amazing” statement that “the whole momentum of the political machine has been directed by the mercantile Interests and has been driven rough-shod across the farmers' interests,” Mr. Young described as quite untrue, and could only be attributed to his overburdening anxiety to win through the present Dairy Board election for his own nominees. In his opinion Mr. Grounds’s reference to large contributions to election funds by “these mercantile interests,” and to pounds of flesh, were all inventions of which there was nothing to feel proud. “AN UNWORTHY ATTACK” “Even after making every allowance for heat in debate,” concluded Mr. Young, “and the fact that a dairy board election is now in progress, there was no justification for Mr Grounds making such a reckless and irresponsible statement. If Mr. Grounds knows anything to the discredit of Mr. Coates as head of the Government and a political party such as he implies, let him express it and play the game as a man and drop his hypothesising. “To imply evil, political or otherwise, to a person, and not to express it, is a most unworthy form of attack,” concluded Mr. Young.