DAIRY REGULATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 277, 17 November 1908, Page 4

DAIRY REGULATIONS

The Wellington Post, an Opposition | journal, had the following in a leader on! Friday It is obviously a vast easy matter for the critics of the Co vernment to make an effective appeal the prejudices of the farmers against any regulations designed to control an industry that has hitjierto been carried on in a very rough and ready fashion. From the days when protection was first asked for the child slaves of England from the horrors which the factory system, under the gospel of free competition and enlightened self-interest, had heaped upon them, every industry which has had to submit to control for the benefit of the whole community has raised the same shrill cry against the tvrairnv of the State. "Let us alone," is always, as has bevn .well said, tie prayer of evil, and it is uttered just as freely by those who have no evil intentions as by those who have. Not one of tlie dairy farmers who are groaning under the new regulations, and may be induced by Mr llassey's eloquence' to vote against the Government 011 that account, has any desire to injure his customers. But he is very anxious to carry on his old business in the old 'av, even though it may involve tip; risk of even tlie certainty of contaminating the milk supply ill a very serious manner. Like the rest of us, he puts his own interests first, aiiil lie resents very strongly an interference which he has not the detachment to regard from the standpoint of the public good. It is unfortunate that the trouble should have taken place 011 the eve of a general election when party fecliii" i;ieyitably seizes the opportunity 61' making the most of it. Even the postponement of the operation of the regulations for twelve months has allow-d opponents to add the inneiido of cowardice to'their previous attacks upon the Government, instead of conciliating them. Xo doubt it is unpleasant for .anybody to have to submit to re gulation and inspection, and it would be impossible to frame any code upon the subject that would not appear harassing in some of its details, and might not liecome genuinely harassing if unduly pressed. . . . All factory managers, it appears, favour the regulations because they are calculated to eliminate the "dirty suppliers!? unci the dirty supplier 'is responsible' for lowering the value of the general product. The generous subsidies that have for years been contributed out of general revenue to improve tlie value of the dairy industry makes resistance to the .in junction imposed bv the regulations for necessary cleanliness the more unreasonable. The duty of the Government is at any rate clear: the public interest must take precedence of prejudice and custom.