I.—loa.

92

[j. R.CORRIGAN.

then we have had a good deal of agitation in connectiem with this matter, and the Bill has been brought forward again this year. During the period that has elapsed since last year there are certain interests in Taranaki that have been organized, and there is no doubt of the fee;ling in Taranaki that the organization that has been set up there in opposition to the Bill comes from the exporters anel the agents. In my own mind I know that it comes from the exporters and the agents. They go to a certain number of the dairy-producers, and they put their siele of the question, and they practically get them mesmerized to believe that they are right and that the dairy-producers as a whole are; wrong. 1 do not blame them for that, because I can see myself that if the Dairy Control Bill is passed, and the Board set up, that some of those gentlemen are more than likely in time to lose the positions they hold at the present moment. But then we look at it from this point of view: are a few men —say, twenty-five agents—are they going to hold up the dairy ineiustry of this country, or are the producers to have the right to carry on their own business. Now, there has been a committee working here in Wellington against the Bill, and propaganda has been distributed over the whole of New Zealand — the South Island and every part of New Zealand. I have seen practically the same propaganda in all parts of New Zealanel. Now, the promoters of the Bill have; not been doing any propaganda work at all. What they have done is this : they have held meetings in Dunedin and Southland and Christchurch, and a meeting at Lceston. In the North Island they held a meeting at Hamilton, two meetings at Stratford, and there was the annual meeting of the Dairy Association in Palmerston North. That is practically the work that the promoters of the Bill have put up. Now, lam quite certain of this, gentlemen : that 90 per cent, of the dairy-producers—that is, all the co-operative dairy-factory producers —are in favour of this Bill 1. Mr. Field.] Throughout the whole; Dominion ?—Yes. Every man that I have met who has eliscussed the matter with me, as soon as I have shown him what the idea of the Council was, has said, " That is the very thing we want." That is the position which exists now. , I myself as an inelividual producer—and I produce as much butterfat as Mr. Maxwell represents —am quite satisfied that it is this Bill and this Control Board that is required in the industry. lam quite certain upon that point. The setting-up of that Board will prevent the dairy-producers playing ducks,and drakes with their produoe. They will not be able to do that. And then in the future we will have to consider the other countries of the world, which will come into the primary production market again. During the war period they were knocked out, but they will come back again. We will have great competition from those countries in the future. They will be competing with us, and it behoves us to get the best organization together to work in our interests that we can. When I was at Home in 1912 Russia, was becoming a, very predominating factor in the butter-markest at Home. Siberia was sending very large; . quantities of butter to the Home market. Now they are; sending none. But they will come back again. Then there is the Argentine, and other countries. It is necessary that we should be alive; to the; position and keep our own produce up to the mark as far as quality is concerned and get the best out of it for the dairy-producers of this country. So we really want this Control Board. Now I will tell you what happened a year ago last April in Taranaki. We had a very bad slump in butter, t and the, dairy-producers, I can assure you, were hit very hard. Butter went down to Is. Id. per pound. Well, I was in Stratforel one day at the. Dairy Union meeting, and one of the buyers came to me and said, " Any butter for sale." I said, " Yes, 1,500 boxes." He said, " I will give you Is. 2|d. for thorn." I said, " No, I will not take it." Now, the reason I would not take it was not because of the price, because that was a gooel price at that time, but I thought when he was offering me that price it might be worth while to hold on for more. Well Stratford sold, and Mangorei sold. They were forced into that position. Mr. Morton sold, I believe, about 2,000 boxes. Well, within four days I sold 2,000 boxes at Is. 4|d. Another factory sold at Is. s£d., and so it went on, until at last for some of the butter I was making I got Is. B|d. Now, that butter was shipped away between May and October. The amount shipped away out of Taranaki was 72,964 boxes, and practically the whole of that butter, for which those different prices were paid out here, was sent Home to one firm, and that one firm is a very big firm in Tooley Street The Chairman.] I am sorry to interrupt you, but the time has come for the adjournment of the Committee.

Friday, 3rd August, 1923. William Grounds examined. (No. 25.) 1. The Acting-Chairman.] Whom do you represent ? —The Hokianga Dairy Company. 2. We will be very glad if you will make your statement to the Committee ?—lt is not my intention at this late stage of the procee-dings to weary you as to the position that justified us in asking for the Bill, and I think it would be better if I review the- main points of the criticisms that have been levelled at the; Bill, and in doing so to emphasize the main points in opposition, I may say that I listened to some, of the criticisms that were made and 1 was struck by the futility of some of them. There was one particular statement that struck me as being particularly stupid, and it seemed to me that it called for some observation. lam referring to Mr. Bond's statement that he had been offered a seat upon the; Dairy Council. It was to me- so transparently stupid, but at the same time it appe;ared to me necessary that some; inquiry was necessary for the purpose; of ascertaining how he himself came to form such an idea. I made inquiries and founel that it arose in somethiii"like this way : Mr. Bonel, together with Mr. Corrigan and a number of others who were- opposed to the Bill, were discussing the question. Something was mentioned as to the probability of some fine jobs being available as a consequence of it, and Mr. Corrigan remarked, " Well, I am a member of the Council