ALARMING FALL

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20739, 24 February 1939, Page 9

ALARMING FALL

DAIRY PRODUCTION , “BECOMING VERY SERIOUS” WHY IT SHOULD BE KEPT HIGH (Times Special Reporter) MORRINSVILLE, Thursday Following alarm expressed by several delegates regarding Ihe rapidly falling dairy production in New Zealand, the conference of the No. 1 Ward of the Dairy Board decided to-day to urge the Dominion Conference to investigate the downward drift of production and to apply such remedies as were possible. The matter was raised by Mr \V. Darrall. “Fall in production,” said Mr F. W. Seifert, chairman of the Morrinsville Dairy Company, “is one of the most serious problems the dairy industry is facing.” He could see no reason why production should not he increasing. Certainly tlie outbreak of so-called facial eczema in the Auckland Province last season had made production tend to fall but the effect could not have been lo the extent, that production would have fallen as seriously as it had. in Mr Seifert's opinion the reason for the fall in production could he attributed to either financial causes or Lo the farm workers. One of Hie main reasons for the alarming decline in the amount of dairy j oduce manufactured, lie thought, was Ihe shortage of farm labour. A commission should be established to investigate the position. If a Quota Comes “It is not a matter of politics. If production falls we will lose our profits and the equity in our farms,” added Mr Seifert. “Jf a quota is imposed upon our produce it will be a restriction on our present small production not upon our peak period in other years. That is one of the paramount reasons for the urgent necessity of keeping our production oil a high level.” “I am prepared to say,” said Mr W. E. Hale, chairman of the Dairy Board, “that the Government would welcome an increase in production.” He said over half the cows in the Dominion were on Auckland Provincial pastures and when this district was affected the whole of the Dominion showed a decline in dairy production. “1 should like to see the matter of falling production investigated,” he added, “but I hope, if it is, the dairycompanies will give us more assistance than they did when data was being collected last season for the guaranteed price tribunal. Then dairy companies did not co-operate with us as well as they might have.”