ESSENTIAL PRODUCTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 April 1917, Page 8

ESSENTIAL PRODUCTION.

ICTTER v. CUEF.SK. AN IMPORTAXT AF'FKAL An important question was touched on by Captain Walker during the hearing uf the. adjourned appeal oi Percy B. Sole, dairy fanner, ot Brixton, at the j sitting of the Military Service Hoard in! Xew Plymouth on Wednesday. Mr Johnstone, who appeared for appellant, said that in a recent statement, the Minister of Defence asked farmers lo place their position before the Hoard. If appellant was ordered to go into camp,, the farm, would have to bo soldi up, but before doing so, l:c wished to' have a mandate from the Board. In reply to the chairman, appellant said that his wife would look aiter young stock. He would not consider putting share-milkers, in. Mr Johnstone said it was practically Impossible to get a man who could be relied oil to look after the .farm. ' In reply to Captaju Walker, appellant stated that he supplied a. butter factory. There was a cheese factory a similar distance away, but the road to it was a bad one. His father could not look after the farm as a fattening proposition, because he was managing a small farmof l?> acre's of his own, and would not be ftble to do the necessary work. Captain Walker said tiiisi raised a very important question.✓lt was a sort of challenge. The farmer practically Mid: "If you take my 'boy or my man or me off the farm we'll sell our dairy herd and turn the farm into a grazing proposition." If he would supply milk to a cheese factory he would, as military representative, raise no objection to exemption being allotted in the ordinary way, but when it came to a case of supplying a butter factory, as he is now doing, it is a different matter, and he thought he was justified in taking up a different attitude. Butter was not being purchased by the British Government in Xew Zealand. .It was not so /•ssential for the army as cheese, He contended that when a case of this sort came up, the Board could fairly accept the challenge of the reservist and say, '•You can sell your herd and turn (lie farm into a fattening proposition." On the one .hand the country would have a certain amount of butter not used by the troops, on the other hand it would have beef, an essential food, and in addition a fit fighting man of 26 years of age to help win the war. There was only one thing for the Board to do, in his opinion. "Incidentally, it had come to his ears that it was contemplated to convert the cheese factories in and about Xew Plymouth' to butler factories. This would be absolutely contrary to the public interest so far as winning the war wa; concerned. The Minister of Defence had said. "We want food and we want men," and in his last statement he had put men first. Mr Johnstone said he did not wish to say very much in reply to what Captain Walker had urged. They had read tliat the Minister of Defence had said that before a dairy farmer took the step of dispersing his dairy herd he should come before the Board. The appellant had done thisi Possibly the butter-tax, which was regarded as an odious thing throughout the country, was at the bottom of it. He stated that all the farmers did waa to produce the milk, and it was for the directors to say whether butter or cheese would be made. No doubti the dairy factories would fall in with a proposal from the Government if one were made. -Practically the w.inle of the butter produced in this district went Home and formed an importantpart of the food of the English people. if not the army. •Mr Perry said the thought there was a good deal in what Captain Walker had said. Cheese was being used a good deal at the front. Our Government had not stated that they wanted more cheese, or the dairy farmers would, no doubt, produce more of it. He did not thWc that the Board could differentiate between butter and cheese to any extent. The Board had to study what was in the interests of the country to keep it, going. The chairman agreed with Mr Perry. It seemed a pity to disperse valuable herds that had been got together aftpr years of work Should the Imperial Government ask Xew Zealand to get more cheese if possible, then no doubt some of the butter factories would turn to cheese. To him, it appeared that some of these herds which had been so carefully worked up should not be broken up. The. appeal was adjourned till the next sitting of the Board in Xew Plymouth, to receive a report from the .Efficiency Board as to whether satisfactory share-milking could not be arranged.