"MERCHANT INTERESTS"

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 425, 6 August 1928, Page 1

"MERCHANT INTERESTS"

MR. GROUNDS ON DAIRY BOARD POLICY CANNOT REMAIN MOUTHPIECE (From Our Own Correspondent) KAITAIA, To-day. "The Dairy Control Board as at present constituted is not a control board, but an anti-control board,” said Mr. Grounds, in the course of an address at Kaitaia on Saturday. The leaders of dairymen at Waikato, had, he said, determined to break down the board piece by piece, their aim being the final dismemberment of the control system. While he had been chairman, there had been a constant attempt to gag the chairman. He had had great dilficulty in making the true position public, the daily Press being largely controlled by merchant interests. The opposition were powerful advertisers and Waikato interests were controlling the N.Z. Co-operative Dairy Co., the Dominion Broadcasting Co., the Glenafton Collieries, the Challenge Phosphate Co., and Amalgamated Dairies. This, no doubt, had an enormous influence on the attitude of the Press, and had led to his statements, issued as chairman of the board, being sLippressed. Nevertheless, he called on dairymen to stand by the board, as the personnel was wrong, but the principle was right and regeneration was possible. Even though the board had failed in marketing activities, it had justified its existence, having saved over a million pounds to the industry on freights alone in the six years of its operation. Supervision of storage in London had also been of tremendous benefit to the industry. Essential points in the maintenance of quality, previously overlooked, were now receiving strict attention. He said he hoped to be of more service to farmers now he was out of the chair. He could no longer hold that position, or be the mouthpiece of the policy now adopted by other members, who had changed all their opinions on control, and who tried to justify the change in a manner which he could only characterise as being extraordinarily presumptuous.