DAIRY’ CONTROL.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1926, Page 15

DAIRY’ CONTROL.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—ln a recent issue of your valuable paper Mr. Running with the Hares and Hunting with the Hounds J. R. Corrigan plaintively pleads for a fair go for the Control Board. I must say that if giving them unlimited powers isn t giving them a fair go they are hard, to satisfy. Personally I would not give them any sort of a go, as they are anti-Empire and antiBritish Socialists, and were doomed to failure from the word go, for the following reasons: It is not Tooley' Street who will crush them, but the whole economic fabric of that delicately constituted League of Nations, known as the British Empire, which will brook no dictation from any one section of its members. Now', we all know Mr. Coates went Home an ardent supporter of absolute control (he would not have allowed it to become law if he wasn’t), and yet within a very short time of hitting London he changes his views considerably'. Why? Now, if Mr. Corrigan and other supporters of control will follow me, I will give them my personal opinion of why Mr. Coates changed so quickly. We know a deputation of merchants waited on Mr. Coates, but I am sure they had very little influence with him. What, then, did influence him? I suggest that our Prime Minister had hardly got his land legs going again when he received a ring from Mr. Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, asking him to call round at the latter’s office as soon as convenient. Mr. Coates, with his own importance barometer rising, probably got round to Mr. Baldwin’s office before it was convenient, and the following conversation took place, the result of which we have seen in Mr. Coates cable. After a preliminary canter about Mr. Coates health, etc.. Mr. Baldwin led off by asking the Prime Minister of the staunchest believer in keeping the Empire together, the astounding question whether he did believe in the Empire. Of course, Mr. Coates and New Zealand believed in the Empire. Mr. Baldwin then asked, this fact being made clear, why New Zealand was passing legislation which w'ouid eventually ruin the Empire, to wit, the N.Z. Dairy Control Act? Mr. Coates replied that this Act was not aimed at the Empire, but was

simply a law which aimed at getting every penny our produce was worth with no profits to anyone except the N.Z. producer, less only the actual cost of handling, freight, commission, etc. Mr. Baldwin then asked Mr. Coates if he could not see that if this principle of taking all profits, less working expenses, was universally adopted by every country supplying goods to Britain, it would only be a matter of very short time when the British Empire would crumble. Mr. Coates probably still failed to see the why for of Mr. Baldwin’s argument, and said so. Mr. Baldwin then enlightened him something like this: “In the ordinary course of business British merchants make profits (and sometimes losses) from foreign and Empire goods. Now these merchants, are compelled by the British Government to keep proper books, and out of the profits diown in these books She British Government takes something like 15/- in every pound. Now if the British merchant cannot make profits through the operations of the Control Board, how can the Government tax them?” Carry this further. How can,the British Government pay for the upkeep of a huge navy and army to protect that infant in arms, N.Z., from the perils of invasion (and they are real perils) if they cannot get the where-with-all to do so out of its merchants’ profits, the merchants having no profits to tax because the N.Z. farmer has collared all the profits, and bought a bally Yankee car with it? No, No, my gay brigand Control Board, John Bull is wide awake to all these dodges. He wouldn’t be where he is to-day if he wasn’t. The old man gives you a pretty free hand in your dealings with his people, but he certainly expects you to leave him a little bit of profit when the deal is finished with which to protect himself, and incidentally he protects you' at the same time. The sooner N.Z. people recognise all this and squash the Control Board as it is at present constituted, the better for all concerned. If our producers can average 1/6 to 1/8 per lb butter-fat they should not grumble at Father John getting a cut out of what is over. Mr. Baldwin probably placed the same argument before Mr. lorns and others, and he, being a staunch believer in the Empire, saw the wisdom of leaving a nest egg behind, so that the old bird will lay again. Of course, Messrs. Grounds, Corrigan, and some more having no vision past the end of their noses, could not, or would not, see the vital poire. In conclusion, Mr. Editor, I must say that I see the end of that stupid Act known as the Dairy Control Board. John Bull, instead of Tooley Street, having taken it in hand, the outcome is not in doubt.—l am, etc., W. C. HICKEY. Oaonui, November 11. P.S.—The sooner the N.Z. producer recognises that the above economic facts accurately set out the true position, and tnake haste to relieve the expensive muddlers from their fat jobs, the sooner the pr dues market will recover, and the jrooner we will get back to' that very good

price of from 1/6 to 1/9 per lb. Incidentally, while they are busy handing out the order of the boot to the Control Board they might also hand it to our inefficient Minister of Agriculture, who is only a weak tool in any Socialist’s hands who blows along.