“EXPENSIVE LESSON”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 400, 14 July 1928, Page 11

“EXPENSIVE LESSON”

MR. NASH ON DIARY BOARD’S POLICY ERRORS OF ITS WAYS (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-day. Criticism of the Dairy Produce Control Board occupied Mr. J. A. Nash during his speech on the Address-in-Reply debate last evening, when he recalled the board's June meeting, which ended Fn chaos, with a prominent member washing his hands of the whole business. “It is a nice condition of affairs,” said Mr. Nash, who asked why the Government had as many as 12 members on the board. Six should be enough. Mr. H. M. Campbell: Too many. Mr. Nash ventured the opinion that if control was handed over to the Meat Board, the country would set the better service. The Meat Board had conducted operations with credit. It had to be congratulated on its sane policy. If the Dairy Board had adopted a similar sane policy, there would have been none of lasts year’s loss. The Dairy Board had failed miserably. The only redeeming feature was that some members had seen the error of the board’s ways. It had been an expensive lesson for New Zealand. The Government should take the opportunity to take control from the board’s hands.

At a recent stormy meeting of the National Dairy Association, said Mr. Nash, some hard questions -were put to the late chairman, who did not have the confidence of the meeting. That was an indication of the feeling of the dairy farmers. He felt sure that the appointment of Mr. W. A. lorns would meet with general approval. If his advice had been accepted earlier, the position of the board would be different from what it was to-day Mr. J. R. Hamilton (Awarua) declared himself a supporter of the control policy, and, although he cricitised the Labour Party for its general policy, he gave its members credit for supporting control. It was essential to protect settlers against the aggression of the middlemen who were making large profits out of New Zealand dairy produce. His opinion was that the absence of complete dairy control was costing the farmers of New Zealand a penny a pound on their whole dairy produce, so that farmers were not getting the benefit of their fight with the merchants on the question of free marketing.