t.'c. brash.]

91

I.—loa.

suggested. The smaller factories which have made so much noise in that connection receive better voting-powers than the bigger factories, and there has been no change in recent years in the Board controlling the National Dairy Association. 52. Did the evidence that there was dissatisfaction with respect to the National Dairy Association come as a surprise to you ? —There has not been much dissatisfaction with respect to the National Dairy Association, but it has suited the opponents of the; Bill to make the; National Dairy Association the stalking-horse. Our business has been steadily growing since the last thirteen years. 53. What does the National Dairy Association do in addition to arranging freight? —Importing supplies and the necessary requisites used by the dairy factories. The gooels go direct to the dairy factories —that is to say, we do the indenting, and it would be safe to say that we do 80 per cent, of the business. Take cheese-bandages, for instance, it is estimated that the Dominion used some 650,000 yards every year. The National Dairy Association has orders on its books for the coming year of over 500,000 yards for the various dairy factories. 54. Do you sort the goods here ? —The great bulk of it goes direct from the ship's side to the dairy factories concerneel. There is, however, a small quantity kept in stock in case of emergency. 55. You find in that respect there is no falling-off in the support of the National Dairy Association ?—The support is growing. 56. Mr. Langstone.] Arising out of Mr. Masters's question dealing with the position in Taranaki, I have in my hand a speech that was delivered by Mr. Maxwell, and 1 presume that it was circulated pretty freely throughout the Taranaki District —it deals with the revolutionary and communistic powers, and says it was advocated by a clique in which a great number of the producers have not the least faith : do you think that a circular of that character would prejudice the minds of the producers in Taranaki against the proposed Bill ? —Undoubtedly. I do not know whether the full speech has been sent round to the farmers, but I have a copy of the circular that was circulated by Mr. Maxwell, and it is more or less on the same lines. 57. I take it that if the pool were established it would mean that the local agents would be almost eliminated —they would deal direct with Tooley Street ? —I would not say that would happen right away. Very full investigations would have to be made before any 1 steps of that nature would have to be taken. James Rendall Corrigan, M.P., examined. (No. 24.) Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, —I would like to say that I have been connected with the dairy industry for over twenty years, and during that time I have never been a director of the; National Dairy Association. I have been Chairman of the Hawcra Dairy Factory for a number of years, and I have taken an active interest in the industry generally. Since the year 1907 we; have been endeavouring to evolve a scheme for the purpose of controlling our produce and better the conditions existing between New Zealand and London. At the present time we have nothing to learn from any other country in the world in co-operative manufacture of dairy-produce, but we feel that we could make improvements between here and London, and that has been exercising the minds of the leaders of the industry since 1907. In 1912 I was in the Old Country, and I went into the position of the arrival of our produce and the marketing of it there, and I could see that there- was plenty of room for improvement, and we have never had a person who has been to the Old Country and connected with the dairying industry that has come back and said that no form of control is necessary. In 1913, in Hawera, I stated at a meeting what was my experience in the Old Country, and there was a committee set up to evolve a scheme. We presented a report to the Annual Dairy Conference at Palmerston North in the following June. There was a minority report and a majority report. Mr. Pacey and two others opposed the majority report. There were twelve men on it, and nine supported the majority report. We put in the whole day discussing it, and it was then carried at the Conference that we were to make every investigation and report at the; next meeting of the Conference, which was in twelve months' time. But during that period the war broke out. The matter was then left in abeyant*. There was nothing done then until last year, or the year before last. It was then decided that we would go on and see if we could not get some scheme of control set up for dairyproduce. Mr. Goodfellow at that time was in the Old Country, and we realized —the committee that was carrying on this work realized —that it was no good to go on with the matter until Mr. Goodfellow returned, because he himself and his company exported one-quarter of the exportable surplus of the dairy-produce of New Zealand. We realized at once that unless he woulel come in with the scheme it was no use going on with it. Well, on his return we met at Wanganui, and we discussed the whole position. He gave us his experiences in the Old Country, and his experiences were exactly the same as mine were in 1912, and we decided upon a pooling scheme. Perhaps members of the Committee will recollect that it was stated at the Conference in Wellington that we would support a pooling scheme;. However, when it was submitted to the Conference they did not like the idea, and thev referred it back again, and asked us to see if we could not get something more suitable for the whole country. Then the Committee sat again on several occasions, and we developed the scheme put before you last year in the nature of the Dairy Control Bill. I may tell you that a Dairy Council was set up by one of these Conferences, consisting of ten members from the South Islanel, and twenty from the North Island, giving as near as possible representatives for every branch of the industry, and from isolated parts of the country. It was thought that by this means we would have practie;ally and unanimously the whole of the dairy ineiustry ideas upon this question. Well, it went on from that. Last year, as you know, the Bill was placed before Parliament, but it was stonewalled and held up. Since