SUSPICION IN INDUSTRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 364, 26 May 1928, Page 1

SUSPICION IN INDUSTRY

Reply to Mr. Goodfellow “IN HIS RIGHT PLACE” SAYS MR. GROUNDS (THINK Mr. Goodfellow is now in liis right place—out of the Dairy Control Board,” said Mr. VV. Grounds, chairman ot the board, at Auckland this morning. IMz*. Grounds charges Mr. Goodfellow with inconsistency and inaccuracy, and asserts that his (Mr. Goodf ellow’s) position at the board table while he was interested in the Amalgamated Dairies, had created suspicion in the industry.

•Since the establishment of the Amalgamated Dairies,” M.r. Grounds said, the suspicions attaching to the power of the Waikato have been multiplied. Mr. Goodfellow does not appear to recognise that it was this suspicion that was mainly responsible for the objection within the industry to he altered system originally proposed and based upon a Dairy Counci “Added to this suspicion, the establishment of the Amalgamated Dairies, and Mr. Goodfellow’s continuing membership of the board, has created misgiving in the minds of mercantile interests, who see in him a representative of a rival selling organisation at the board's table.” The reference of Mr. Goodfellow to pooling and price-fixation was said by Mr. Grounds to be ‘‘strangely at. Variance with fact.” “None will suggest pooling without price-fixation,” he said, “but members of the board will recall that upon Mr. Goodfellow's return f.rom England in May last I drew their specific attention to the ultimate result of Mr. Goodfellow’s suggestion regarding a withdrawal of pooling. “Efficient control is quite impossible without a system of pooling results, but none so far as I know has up to the present time suggested either complete control or pooling results.” MORAL OBLIGATION In r~ pect to export licences, which were .e immediate cause of the dispute at the board table, Mr. Grounds expressed the conviction that all companies which had signed the agreement to supply the particulars required under the licence regulations were morally bound to execute their undertaking. The board had refrained from asking the Minister to issue licences until the factories had signified their acceptance of the conditions. The New Zealand Co-opera-tive Dairy Company signed its acceptance under the name of the chairman and secretary on September 26 of last year. Mr. Goodfellow now claimed that this had been done in his absence, although it was not until JGffVipinber 24 that he, together with his solicitor, waited upon Mr. Grounds and explained his position. Meanwhile the export of the company’s produce had been going forward based upon the

written undertaking to supply the export particulars required in the regulations. ”1 consider, as I considered at the time,” Mr. Grounds went on, “that so long as factories retain their licences, which had been issued under the promise of the factory to provide the particulars, they are morally bound to supply them until the licence has been returned.” POLICY NON-OPERATIVE Upon being questioned as to the outcome of the board’s suspension of further action till the July meeting, Mr. Grounds said th© effect, of deferring the question was that the whole thing was non-operative for the present season’s produce. The exportlicence regulations were still in existence, but the board had been unable to carry out its policy of executing them. Already, as a result of the board allowing the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company to hold out against the supply of the particulars required by the licence, several other factories had indicated "heir intention to adopt a similar attitude. ‘‘Mr. Goodfellow’s two statements are contradictory,” Mr. Grounds declared. ‘‘.ln the first statement, published on Friday, he urges the necessity for the establishment of a national organisation, and further urges the need for educational effort to secure this result; In the second, published to-day, he wa,rns the industry regarding the board’s present course as being only a preliminary to the establishment of a national organisation. . . .” NOT HIS OWN Mr. Grounds denied that the policy to include all factories was his own, th© board having agreed by eight votes to two to his motion to that effect. The board chairman added that Mr. Goodfellow probably was not responsible for the writing of his statement about the Dairy Council, for anyone who had been closely associated with the early work in this connect on would recognise its inaccuracy. Mr. Grounds will review the whole situation at a conference of farmers at Auckland on Monday. Mr. Goodfellow’s statement appears on page 10 of this edition.