THE MEAT POOL.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 March 1922, Page 5

THE MEAT POOL.

MR. W. D. HUNT’S POSITION. APPOINTMENT RECOMMENDED. REASONS FOR THE DELAY. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington. Last Night. The Minister for Agriculture (Hoiu W. Nos worthy), informed a pressman to-day that Mr. W. D. Hunt, had been recommended for appointment to the Meat Producers’ Control Board. He said: "I have been going very carefully into the matter of the appointment of the representative of the stock and station agents on the Meat Produces’ Control Board and in this connection 1 have had some discussion with Mr. W. D. Hunt, who was nominated for the position, and I am very glad to state that those interviews have been of a very satisfactory nature. It has been decided to recommend the appointment to His Excellency the Gov-ernor-General.

“The matter of the personnel of the board was of the greatest importance to producers, requiring thorough consideration from every point of view before a decision was arrived at, especially haying regard to the matter of the opposition which the proposals met with in their earlier stages. I feel sure that Mr. Hunt will do his best to assist in making the board’s operations a success.”

Mr. Hunt made the following statement: “The hesitation of the Government in appointing me as the representative of the stock and station agents on the Meat Export Control Board was, I understand, caused by the fact that I had opposed the scheme at the outset. It is quite true that, in common with the great majority of stock and station agents, I did oppose the scheme. I did this because I, as well as most other stock agents, have a great fear of the blighting effect of Government interference with trade. My opposition was, perhaps, made a little more prominent than most other stock agents, because I was one of the spokesmen in the interview that the agents had with Mr. Massey and Mr. Nosworthy on the subject, and also in subsequent interviews with the Meat Pool Committee. In saying what I did I merely expressed the views of the great majority of the stock agents on the subject. "Now that the Meat Export Control Act has become part of the law of the Dominion, it is, 1 think, the duty of everyone connected with the meat industry in the country to work in with it and to do his best to make it a success. In accepting a position on the board, I intend to do my best to make the activities of the board of the greatest possible benefit to the meat producers of the Dominion, and in this determination I think I will be suported by practically all the stock and station agents.

“In this connection I would just like to point out that the interests of the stock and station concerns and the producers are identical; they are bound together in partnership in the farming industry in this country. Tha stock and station concerns do not make money out of the farmers; they make money with the farmers and lose it with the farmers. Prosperity for the farmers brings with it prosperity to the stock and station concerns, and losses made by farmers are always shared by those in the stock and station business.” <