DAIRY PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 May 1922, Page 6

DAIRY PRODUCE.

NEW MARKETING PLANSINFLUENCE OF THE POODS. ACTIVITY OF THE FARMERS’ UNION. DOMINION PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. At the annual conference of the Taranaki Provincial District of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, at Inglewood, yesterday, Mr. W. J. Polson (Dominion president) gave a very interesting address on the policy and future development of the union. Few, he said, realised the enormous amount of work being done by the Farmers’ Union in the interests of the producers. They had been instrumental in urging the establishment of an Agricultural Bank, and during the last few days the Premier had agreed to bring down legislation to deal with agricultural banking. He had already seen an outline of what was proposed, and was not satisfied, as the scheme was faulty in the extreme and unsatisfactory, and they had got to get to work to convince the drafter of the Bill that it was wrong. The Farmers’ Union had criticised legislation ever since its inception, and had been responsible for hundreds of drastic amendments in. the interests of the producer. This was an answer to the allegation that the Fanners’ Union slept and allowed the producer to suffer. r It was, he remarked, surprising how ignorant dairy-farmers were about, their competitors in other parts of tile World. Co-operative agricultural banks had been established in Germany for the past hundred years, with 16,000 branches. Prior to the war, there was a huge co-opera-tive federation in Europe, with headquarters in Rome, to which were federated co-opefStive societies in Denmark, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Austria. France, Italy, and Siberia, and as a result the producers there obtained advantages that they did not even dream about here. The co-operative movement had spread to America, where of 12 million farmers eight million had joined the American Farmers’ Bureau of Federation, which had obtained strong legislative powers Indeed, the key of that co-operation was obtained in the word “compulsion.” legislation being obtained that enabled the vote of the majority oi any section of farmers to compel every farmer to put his whole produce through the particular pool and eel! through a 1 particular organisation He traced the growth of this from small beginnings in connection with the raisin industry.

AN IMPORTANT STEP. New Zealand had made an important step forward in connection with the marketing of produce, by establishing the meat pool, with the proposed compulsory clauses; but this latter had been cut out in the House, and this, he considered, already promised to seriously affect the whole scheme. The O°. ve f n ' ment had made the board responsible for saving whether compulsion should be applied or not, and he was satisfied that the Meat Board would not apply coin pulsion. The trusts, he said, had made arrangements to trade as they never had done before. They would pick the eyes out of the products and pay more than the average price. The rest would go to the pool, and as the price would notcompare with that of the trusts, the pool would at once be discredited and the whole thing would go by the board. The butter pool people would probably not make the mistake made by the meat

people. . It was absolutely essential, he said, that they should economise as much as possible. Already the Meat Board had done some good: it had got better and more regular shipping and stronger finances. They had already obtained reduced shipping charges, but if the board controlled the whole produce it would have been in a position to dictate terms to the shipping companies, as there was now plenty of shipping available outside the present shipping companies. Moreover, a pool would give an assurance of standard grade, uniformity of price, and regularity of shipment. This would give greater confidence to merchants in pushing our products, and consequently they would get an increased price for it. When they considered what the Danes had done by organisation, they must realise its value. At one period our butter, admittedly the best in the world, was selling for 40s or 50a less than Danish.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. It was, he said, ridiculous to suppose that the New Zealand producers could not handle their produce on the London market as the Danes did. They had got a better article, and though it had to be put in cold storage and shipped 12,000 miles, it must be remembered that the Danes had to stall-feed their cattle for six or eight months, and conseqently had food flavors that New Zealand butter, with its natural food, had not. In fact, New Zealand had the best article and the worst organisation. It therefore behoved them to get busy and prove their organisation, because they would have to face keener competition than in the past. From reports they couid see that Russia was about to be rehabilitated, and Sibera would be in the trade shortly. Referring to figures supplied by the National .Dairy Association, he showed that before the war Russia imported to Britain 693.000 cwts. of cheese, and to-day none; Sweden. 277,000 cwts., and to-day none; Denmark, today 400,000 cwts. less than before the war; and France, etc., 200,000 tons less; or a total of 1,642,000 cwts. less for these countries. The Dominions, America, Argentine, and Australia had in that period increased their export by 1,112,000 cwts. of butter and 500,000 crates of cheese In other words, these places had made up the losses from the other countries, and he pointed out that Siberia was capable of producing half the butter imported into England. They would therefore see how essential it was to produce as economically as possible. They had to see that the costs were kept down. That brought him to another plank —they must have reduction in taxation. They must see that the Government was sufficiently economical to give them that reduction in taxation without which they could not possibly carry on.

AGRICULTURAL BANKS. The next plank was an Agricultural Bank. It was absolutely necessary that they should have a more sympathetic banking system than at present. The banks may have had sympathy, but had cracked under the strain, and they were not able to do anything for farmers in the time of trial. The Bank of New Zealand was the least sympathetic, and considering that it had been saved from destruction by the people of New Zealand the bank should have shown the most consideration and not the least. He understood the bank was still maintaining its unsympathetic attitude. They therefore wanted a system on the lines

of the German agricultural banking system, with certain modifications. These banks were managed by farmers for farmers. They advanced 50 per cent, to 66 per cent, on land values, the advances being compulsory. It gave assistance from £5 to £500,000, and fostered co-operation, advancing the money at the lowest possible rates and made no profits. New Zealand lacked the necessary machinery for this, and the producers suffered accordingly. He was happy to say that Mr. Massey had promised to bring down legislation, and there was a prospect of getting legislation before the present Parliament closed. He pointed out that through stress by financial institutions farmers had been compelled to sell wool for 3d per pound that was now worth 7d, and as every penny in the pound meant £1<,000,000 to the producers, they could see what New Zealand had lost through not being able to hold on. He congratulated the Otakeho branch on being the originator of this

THE SHIPPING PROBLEM. Regarding the next plank, shipping, he said that the Government had set up a Shipping Board, comprised largely of Farmers’ Union men, whose scheme had been adopted. It was suggested that a levy should be made on all exports, producing about £250,000 per annum. Every producer would be given shares for the capital put in. It was not proposed to make a levy on imports, because this would only come back on the producers, and the importers would get the scrip. It was proposed to ask the Government to subsidise the scheme to the amount paid in by the producers, and the Government would have the representation they desired. V ested interests had,

however, proved too powerful. The producer wanted producer-owned and iStateassisted shipping. They did not want State-owned shipping, because the producers, he thought, could run it very satisfactorily to the State and more satisfactorily to the producers. They must,: however, be in a position to fight vested interests and combat the shipping trusts. There was an enormous trade to be done in the East, providing they had the necessary shipping to compete with Japan, America and other countries, each of which subsidised shipping to carry its flag to the East. It was. he said, no use sending trade commissioners; they must establish shipping before they could hope to obtain the markets which were es-

sential to their well-being, Costs and charges must be reduced as far as possible, and for this they must urge the abolition of preference to unionists. He would go further, and say that the* whole question of arbitration should be scrutinised. It was not right to artificially and arbitrarily fix the price of foodstuffs; it was not right to arbitrarily fix the price of labor. He warned returned soldiers who were members of the Farmers’ Union against being taken in by Labor agitators, who were taking full advantage of the bitterness that some returned men naturally felt at the present position they found themselves in. No Government had done more for the\ soldier than the present one ? and he contrasted the position with that of the Labor Government in Australia. The Farmers’ Union, he said, would do its best to see the returned soldier through. Mr. Polson was given a unanimous vote of thanks for his interesting address.