STRONG CRITICISM,

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20282, 26 August 1937, Page 14

STRONG CRITICISM,

GOVERNMENT’S POLICY. MR J. G. BRECHIN’S VIEWS. Mr J. G. Brechin, -secretary of the North Tlraumea Dairy Company, and a director of the National Dairy Ass-o-ration and several other concerns connected with the farming Industry, made a trenohant criticism of the Government's policy at the annual general meeting of the company at Pahiatua, states the Manawatu Standard. The -speaker introduced his remarks by stating that dairy farmers who were interested in returns for butter and cheese—especially the latter—must be alarmed and disappointed at the result of the socialistic action of the Labour Government in oommaadeerlng the produce of the dairy factories. The facts were too plain to be denied, and it was quite useless supporters of the Government trying to make people believe that they had made no loss by this action. The Tlraumea Company, small as it was, had lost from 2d to 3d per pound of butterfat last season, and it was probable that this loss would continue over the next two years, the Government retaining handsome profits out of their labour. The speaker averred that when prices appeared to he ready to recede the co-operative dairy companies would be told that, as they have wished to do so, they could go back to the old conditions and do their own marketing. Not Free Farmers. “To-day we are not free farmers; we are socialised -serfs pure and simple,” said Mr Brechin, “and it h's never yet been recorded that serfs were other than ground down, robbed of the fruit of their labour, and left without even a soul to call their own. This is a fact of history, and history is repeating itself in this Dominion, so far as the dairy farmer is concerned. Take the facts as we know them. We are overrun with inspectors of this and that. We cannot manufacture cheese to suit ourselves, nor can we make either white or coloured cheese without the direction of one or other Government official resident in Wellington. Wo cannot, enter into a contract with a box factory for crates in which to pack our cheese. The firm from whom we must purchase is named, and no crates may be purchased elsewhere. The price is fixed by a Government ofllcial in Wellington or elsewhere, and we arc informed by way of regulations (which are added to at the rale of not less than one per month) how many nails we are to hammer into each crate, in the factory the work of the men can be interfered with not only by sundry inspectors but actually by trade union secretaries. “Dairy farmers now know what the result of Government interference is in their factories and on their farms. Quite recently wc have had the -sorry olllcials raiding our homes for liie

purpose of examining- our records of receipts and checking up our returns for Income tax purposes. No farmer's home is sacred from these attacks,” Mr Brechin added. “Another interesting fact to this company, and to many others situate 1 similarly, is this, that although we have a very excellent cartage contract for the carriage of cheese, etc., to Wellington, a period of live years being covered, this contract is to be ruthlessly suspended and our ‘piece of paper’ torn to pieces and thrown into the waste-paper basket. in other words, the contract which was to have saved us some hundreds of pounds in money, and has given us complete •satisfaction as to service with our perishable produce, is but another ‘scrap of paper’ which is in the way of 1 lie Government carrying out its policy of making the land pay the whole of the taxation of this country and leaving those who work 40 hours (or less) per week to enjoy the fruits of the labour of the country serfs. I say without risk of contradiction that 1 lie Government lias :n>t kept a single one ol' its promises to farmers and that its policy is one which, unless stern measures ire taken by those who are concerned, will sweep away an industry which it lias taken the sweat of half a century io build up and which to-day is robbed of I lie fruit of its victories by amateurism and unjust and unmerciful legislation.”