DAIRY CONTRACTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 752, 27 August 1929, Page 11

DAIRY CONTRACTS

MR. lORNS REPLIES TO ! STATEMENTS CHANGE WAS NECESSARY Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. ] The chairman of the Dairy Board, { Mr. W. A. lorns, when interviewed to- | day, made a statement regarding the i resolution of the factory directors at j the meeting at Invercargill that the j board had laid itself open to strong j condemnation for sanctioning the proposed contracts for the sale of cheese and butter and asking the board to withdraw it. He traced the devolpments in the dairy industry during the past 40 years. It was interesting to note, he said, that the newly-appointed secretary to the South Island Association had made a statement to the effect that the finest grade was brought in at the request of the board. This, of course, was quite incorrect as the industry both in the North and South had been recommending the dairy division to adopt the finest grade long before the board came into existence. Alterations in the grades and the .necessity for a change of regulations relative to the manufacture of standardised cheese made it necessary tu alter the conditions of the selling contracts, said Mr. lorns. The conditions set out in the standard contract were those which had been adopted by the factories for the past two seasons, and 400,009 boxes of butter were to be shipped to Canada from August to March of the coming season, viz., finest grade, with a reduction of a farthing a pound for first grade. This quantity of 400,000 boxes was more than double the total quantity of butter shipped from the South Island for the whole season. The board agreed that the butter contract was a fair one, but decided to give further consideration to the. cheese contract. It suggested that the standard cheese contract had not yet been dealt with. Statements had been made in the South that the object of the exporters was to get the approval of the board to contracts to enable them to combine to force contracts on to the factories. Statements of this kind were of course, made without giving any carei ful consideration to them. Those responsible for such statements would not for a moment admit that the New Zealand Marketing Association would be found forcing unfair conditions on its members, and with one big buyer outside, what became of the suggested combination of buyers? Again, if combination on the part of the exporters was the objective, why did they not combine when the South Island representatives agreed to their terms at Palmerston North some years ago ? .