J. R. CORRIGAN.]

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I.—loa.

vested interests in Tooley Street, knows that it would be like trying to knock this building down with your head. But what we want to do is to make use of them, and they are quite willing to work with us, and you can quite understand that if the produce is sent to them, and they are not willing to do their best regarding the marketing—if they do not market it properly —then they will not have a proportion of our business the following year. We just want to control our own "business. There is another thing I would like to mention. There has been a, tremendous lot said by the opponents of the Bill about the voting of the dairy factories. The fairest way to consider that, gentlemen, is to consider it on a tonnage basis, because, after all, money speaks all round. And on a tonnage basis I will endeavour to give you the figures as near as I possibly can. I have had the figures taken out. I will give you the number of factories for and against; the tonnage for and against; and the percentage for and against on a butterfat basis. Well, a vote was taken at Hamilton on the 30th May, 1923, and seventeen factories voted for control and seven against. The tonnage of butter manufactured by the factories was —for control 23,321 tons, and 1,168 against. The tonnage of cheese was, for control 5,975 tons, and 310 against. On the basis of butterfat the tonnage was 25,711 for and 1,292 against. On a butterfat basis 95| per cent, voted for the Bill and only 4| per cent, against it. That was at Hamilton. Hamilton represents the south of Auckland and the Waikato. I will now take the North Auckland conference, which was held on the 28th May, 1923. The number of factories that voted there for control was fifteen. They manufactured 5,582 tons of butter. Against the control, there were three factories, who manufactored 1,252. The percentage in favour of the Bill on a butterfat. basis was 81J, and only 18J against. The North of Auckland Conference comprised all the factories north of Auckland, and only three were not represented at the Conference. The total output of those absent companies was only 313 tons of butter and 450 tons of cheese. In Dunedin, at the Annual Conference there in June, there were eighty-nine votes for control and thirty-eight votes against. There are 124 dairy factories in the South Island Dairy Association, and of these eightysix were present at the Conference. Some of these factories had two votes and some only one vote, and a secret ballot was taken, so we were not able to tell what the tonnage was : so that in regard to Dunedin the tonnage is not available. At Palmerston North a Conference was held on the 20th June, 1923. The number of factories that favoured control were 105, representing 38,457 tons of butter and 23,443 tons of cheese —on a basis of butterfat, 47,834 tons. Against control there fifty-two factories, representing 10,013 tons of butter and 10,532 tons of cheese, or a total of 14,224 tons of butterfat. On a butterfat basis 77 J- per cent, voted for the Bill and 225 per cent, voted against it. The Conference at Palmerston North was largely made up of delegates from Taranaki, Wellington, and Hawke's Bay. There is over 75 per cent, of the factories throughout New Zealand in favour of the Bill from a tonnage-basis point of view. I have here" also a few other figures I would like to quote, because they are interesting. I have these figures for the Auckland Province, but they have not been compiled for the other separate provinces of New Zealand. I am quoting these figures just to show you the importance of the dairy industry. The output for the Auckland Province is 35,175 tons of butter and 9,053 tons of cheese. The output for the whole of New Zealand is 67,157 tons of butter and 60,066 tons of cheese. The Auckland Province produced last year £7,000,000 worth of dairy-produce, while the whole of the Dominion produced about £18,000,000. So that you can see the Auckland Province practically produces nearly half the dairy-produce of New Zealand. A big song has been made about Taranaki, as though it was the main province in New Zealand as far as dairy-produce is concerned. At one period it was the main province, but.it has gone back long ago compared with Auckland and the Waikato. Auckland and the Waikato have run right away from them. They have now to take a back seat so far as the, production of dairy-produce of New Zealand is concerned. Tho New Zealand Dairy Company in the Waikato produced 22,020 tons of butter and 3,478 tons of cheese. The dairy factories in the Auckland Province paid the following charges: Railway freights, over £125,000; cartage to contractors, £75,000; waterside workers got £20,000 ; freezing and storage, £80,000 ; wharfage dues, £4,000 ; coastal and ocean freights, £350,000 ; and supplies used in manufacture, £550,000. That is what the dairy factories in the Auckland Province paid last year. You can see that, with an industry like that, when they are in favour of the Bill they arc entitled to consideration. These men have given a great deal of their time to this matter in one way and another, and they know what is necessary. There is not one of the opponents of the Bill who has given evidence who can show any valid reason why the Bill should not be given effect to. It is all surmise upon their part. They surmise that this Control Board may upset the whole of the dairy industry. We realize that whoever is placed on the Control Board will not be men who are going to upset the whole of the dairy industry in that way. There was a lot of talk about how they objected to the election of the Dairy Council, and it was asserted that it was the National Dairy Association over again. I would just like to point out how the Dairy Council was elected. I think it is only right that you should know, so that you can disabuse your minds about a lot of the evidence that you have heard about the National Dairy Association. I think you have heard here that the National Dairy Association is running the Dairy Council. There was a conference of the whole of the dairy producers of New Zealand —of factories—and they were asked to send along accredited representatives to the conference. When we agreed to form this Council the whole of the Taranaki delegates were cut off, and they in turn selected the quota for Taranaki on the Dairy Council. North Auckland did the same, South Auckland did the, same, Wellington and Manawatu did the same, Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay did the same. And it was the same with the South Island delegates from Canterbury, Otago, and Southland. You could not have a fairer way of electing the Council than that. We left it to each province. It so happened that Taranaki was entitled on an output basis to five representatives on that Council, and it so happened that three of the representatives that were chosen on the Dairy Council happened to be directors of the National Dairy Association, but that could not be helped. lam quite certain of this : that Mr. Ranford, who is chairman of the Stratford Dairy Company, who was up for