The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. THE DAIRY REGULATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 234, 26 September 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. THE DAIRY REGULATIONS.

We commend uut- JiiniK-i-jj to carefully peruse the report, published in aiiuth'T column, of Uii' meeting of tin: Dairy Employers' Union hold at Stratford on Wednesday to consider tin' proposed new dairy regulations. An unbiassed consideration, we opine, will nominee dairy farmers thai much that they hud considered harassing imil unjust in the proposals is not so bud after nil. Jn tin; lir.st place, uuiny runners were overhasty in condemning wholesale the regulations before they thoroughly grasped tlieiv purport, and, unfortunately, in some localities political feeling was allowed to somewhat eloud the issue. />-,

we have already pointed mil, the rcg.ilatiouii were drawn up by the Dopailuiiiit of Agrii-uiture on the advice and al the request of the leading dairy fanners in New Zealand, including Tainnaki. Farmers who tarried oil th"ir business on proper lines and they represent quite 75 per cent, of the dairy fanners in Taranaki--have realised that the discretionary power vested in inspectors under the existing regulations, while not to a great extent affecting themselves, did not work satisfactorily in effecting improvements in the conditions under which a minority conducted their milking, etc., to the dutrinic.il of everybody connected with the indusI try.

With the object, therefore, of taking this discretionary power out of the hands of inspectors, and at the same time mandatorily enforcing recognition of hygienic regulations by the fe.v evaders, representatives ot the industry urged upon the Minister the advisability of slating clearly by regulation exactly what conditions the Department .v-

quired. It was obviously impossible to draw up regulations that could be applied, hard and fast, to the industry as 11 whole in its varying conditions throughout the Dominion. The course adopted, therefore, was to draft regulations embodying the ideal conditions under which dairy fanning should lie carried on. The test means of attaining the end in view, hygiene dairying, is set out in the regulations, but what l'arni.'A should not forget U thai it is not proposed that the methods suggested by the Department must be adopted, but merely that the result ahull be attained. None* will deny Unit (jhe proposals of Idie Department to ensure absolute cleanliness would achieve their object, but we agree at once with the average tenant farmer that his means will not permit of the adoption of, for instance, extensive concrete works. As, however, the Department has no intention of enforcing any Mich proposal, much of the opposition raised against the new regulations is at once disarmed. Mr. Deem, of the Slock Department, put the relation of the Department to the winners clearly and honestly at Stratford when lie stated that the Department had taken up the work ef dairy inspection at the request (publicly made request, we might add) of those engaged in the industry, and had done so understanding that its work would be mainly educative and not in any sense police work, the idea being that Hie, farnK'is should look to the inspectors as being the souivc from which to obtain up-to-date information. In fiauing the regulations, be said, the endeavor had been to lay down a point which it was hoped might ultimately be arrived at.

The strong objections that were taken in some quarters to the new regulations have t'o a considerable extent, result'd from confusion between the old and tire' new regulations, particularly with regard to the powers vested in inspectors. As the Hon. .Mr. ll'cNn'b has pointed out, people who complained of thai, power were in most eases thinking of the new regulations, as the new pr.ivisi'ous took th'at power away in nearly all eases and were intended to supersede the old. ilisapprclieiiMon also wa* caused by fanners reading Ihe proposed regulations as setting out the minimum requirements of the Department, whereas they represent the, maximum measure of precautions to be taken to ensure ideal conditions. The tendency of the amendments ]imv being proposed by the farming community i,s in the direction of living the minimum requie, meats to be observed. In Hie one or two instances where the regulations have met with wholesale coiideiniiati-.m iuid abuse, it has lieen clearly owing to misapprehension. ■ Regulations that are meant to all>ly solely to dairies supplying milk for retail in the cities have been misconstrued to apply to country dairy farmers; conditions as regarding the housing of cows, framed to npp.y to the colder dairying districts of Otag-i, have been read to apply tio Taranaki, and so on. We agree that, in some respects the regulations will bear modilieation, but we are convinced that oire the Department's proposals are fully understood, those who have, been loudest in their condemnation will hasten to •admit thai the good of Hie industry has been well conserved without indicting unreasonable expense on the producers.

Dili.' are few farmers nowadays unprepared to admit that the Agricultural Department, in all its multifarious divisions, is working in the very best interests of the farmer s and w'illi as little friction as possible. Thev have onlv to remember that 'fact, aid that the Department's work, the object of its inspection also, is meant to be educational, and for the fanners' advantage and not harassment, lo be convinced that they have nothing to fear from the new departure. Educative, not penal, is the attitude adopted by the Department with regard to the regulations, and that the Minister for Agriculture sincerely desires that every precaution should lie taken against injustice is shown by the fact thai the unusual course has* been adopted of .submitting the regulations to the Parliamentary Stock Committee to consider ami take evidence and suggest amendments before Uioy are finally gazetted. 'Xo doubt a number of amendments will be made as the result of the evidence being given by pradical farmers, but it can be taken for granted tliiat wholesale abuse from some quarters will not deviate the .Minister from his intention to .-afeguard one of our great industries. We would go so far as to siy that were the Coveriwnent to legislate in th,. dim-lion of makin.r landlords bear the cost of pcrmnncmly improving dairy yards and surroundiiijs, inunli more stringent regulations could easily be enforced, ami the industry would certainly be the belter for them. The justice ~[ such a course, especially ill Taranaki, will be universally icclaiuied by hundreds of rent-racked tenant farmers, lint for the present it is sullhwmt to know that, except in a very few bad cases, practically no es-peii-e will have to be incurred hy the great. majority of the farmers to'comply with the prematurely-abused regulations.