DAIRY POOL BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1922, Page 7

DAIRY POOL BILL.

VIEWS OF LONDON BUYERS. “NOT IN BEST INTERESTS.” By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Oct. 12. The representatives of London merchants were interviewed to-day with regard to the dairy export control scheme. They considered it as not in the best interests of the country, as making for restriction of trade. It was an open question how the British retail section of the provision trade would regard an undoubted effort to antagonise it. Tooley Street was not opposed absolutely to the proposed Bill. This was a significant feature up to the present. It was dangerous to entrust £20,000,000 worth of produce to a board of nine men. THE BILL SUPPORTED. HELPING THE PRODUCER. “Dairyman” writes from Stratford: — It is incomprehensible to me that reputedly intelligent men like some of those opposing the Dairy Control Bill should go out of their way to oppose a measure that has been devised in the interests of dairy producers and to impugn the motives of the leaders responsible for it being brought forward. They are not only unjust but illogical, for, whilst they urge, and have ibeen urging for years, an improvement in the system of shipping, marketing and distribution. they immediately rise in opposition as soon as a practical scheme is formulated, their chief aim apparently being to maintain the present faulty system and to further intrench vested interests. I have gone through the Bill very carefully, and fail to see that the interests of producers are in any way menaced. I won’t say that alterations cannot advantageously be made, but the general principles and ideas are right. If there were the hidden dangers that Mr. Maxwell and Co. state exist and are growing hysterical over, do you think for a moment that men like Mr. Morton, Mr. Connett and Mr. Grounds would remain quiet? Would they not, as honest men, at once have the clauses altered or dropped? Again, do you think Mr. Massey, the best friend the dairymen of New Zealand has ever had in Parliament (no doubt because he is one of us) would lend his support to the Bill? Do you think his lieutenant, the Minister for Agriculture (the Hon. Nosworthy) would warmly advocate the necessity for the Bill and father it? Most certainly not. They would do nothing to hurt the interests of dairymen, but they are out to help them. They are not concerned with entrenching vested interests still more; they know that if an effort to secure control ana supervision of the industry is not made soon, then the dairymen will be controlled by vested interests more than ever.

Nearly every country has been obliged, in its own interests, to pay greater attention than was necessary in the old days to marketing and distribution. The Argentine are doing it with their meat (and probably with their dairy produce), the Danes are looking after their own interests*in England, cheese and butter being manufactured and exported under the direct control of the Government, whilst Australasian wool has for a long time been under the control of B.A.W.R.A. Where would the woolgrowers have been if all the wool had been dumped on a sick market? In the soup. It is all right to talk of the law of supply and demand being allowed full away, but it has to be remembered that market conditions have not been normal and that artificial conditions have been created. We, therefore, have to change our methods to meet these new conditions.

I have an English newspaper, the Manchester Guardian, with the following reference to New Zealand and Danish butter. It should be read with interest:—

“New Zealand butter producers are justly incensed at the wide disparity which has lately existed (between the prices of New Zealand and Danish butter in this country. In quality, texture, flavor, and keeping properties, New Zealand first-grade butter is equal if not superior to anything that Denmark can produce. Yet the Danes are able to sell their butter on this market at anything from 30s to 50s per cwt. above the price realised for choicest New Zealand brands. “One of the chief reasons "or this is the wonderful system of distribution which Danish shippers have established in the North and Midlands, where the bulk of the Danish supplies are consumed. The butter is graded to a very high standard of quality by Government graders, and nothing under that standard is allowed to bo shipped to England —secondary qualities being sold to Germany and other Continental countries. New Zealanders, on the other hand, must send the whole of their surplus of butter to Eng] nd—second grade as well as first—as they have no other market.

“Danish butter comes in regular supply all the year round, and is sold over the counter as ‘Danish’ at a retail price of 2d to 4d pel 1 lb over other descriptions; but New Zealand butter comes in a. seasonal rush between December and June, and its identity is lost after passing through the wholesalers’ hands. It may surprise many people to know that a very large quantity of the finest New Zealand butter is regularly sent from London to the West of England, where it is blended with inferior homemade butter, and afterwards returned to London to be sold as fresh Devonshire dairy butter.” The article goes on to speak of the New Zealand Government and importers taking steps to advertise New Zealand butter on the (English market. That has been done, but a great deal more is required to establish the New Zealand product on the English market, and who can do this work better than the representatives of the producers on the spot? If the proposed Control Board can do nothing more than arrange more regular shipments, extend shipments over a longer period, and open up new markets like the Danes have done, it will be well worth while. Fortunately for producers, it looks as though every other part of New Zealand is firm in regard to the necessity for the improvements sought to be made by the promoters of the Bill, and with the tacking of the Government, which knows all about the position producers may be placed in if nothing is done, there is (very prospect of the Bill becoming law in the immediate- future. Let mo conclude by offering a little advice to the opponents of the Bill: Come out with a constructive policy; make suggestions for the improvement of the Bill; cease barracking for vested interests that can look after themselves very well; and stop denouncing the leaders of the dairying industry as incompetents and failures. Then some of us will be inclined to put more faith and confidence in you.