DAIRY COMPANY AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 185, 7 August 1925, Page 3

DAIRY COMPANY AFFAIRS.

REPLY TO ATTACK. SPEECH BY MB. GOODFEIIOW RESOLUTION OF CONTIDENCE. I'Froni Our osvn Correspondents HAMILTON, Thursday. The Hamilton Town Hall was well filled yesterday - afternoon to hear Mr. W. Goodfellow's side of the present dairy company controversy. Mr. Dynes Fulton presided and he was supported on the platform by a number of other directors. Mr. Goodfellow, on rising to speak, was received with loud applause. He said that six years ago the company's capital was approximately £200,000, and to-day it was over £800,000, which showed remarkable progress, and during that period also the quality of the butter had also advanced from 89 to over 92 pointa. Mr. Goodfellow said he had been warned some, two or three months ago to look out for trouble, and that things would be very hot in this district before the annual meeting, and events now happening were proving thi3 to be correct. It came, no doubt, from the anti-control pairty, and. apparently, they had come to a three-fold decision, viz.. (1) The wsrd system of electing Dairy Control Boards; I 2) Small companies in place of the present large concerns, like the Xew Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company : and (3) The present managing- j director (Mr. W. Goodfellow) must go. The ward system was now obviaualv being pushed with the object of enabling the anti-controllers to secure their nominees on the Control Board, and in the hope, if successful, to thus control the Control Board. The small company idea was consistently talked by another section of the community. Obviously a lot of small companies in South Auckland would be easily kept busy fighting each other, and there would be no time to think seriously of improvements td marketing. The big company idea was a menace to the anti-control party. Eegarding his own position, Mr. Goodfellow said that for the past 16 rears he had taken a very great personal interest in the marketing problem. He had, of course, taken an active part in the Control Board's affairs, and in all probability Mr. J. B. MacEwen and the ! speaker were the two best informed men on dairy produce marketing on the Control Board to-day. Evidently the anticontrollers were of the opinion that if he were removed the Board would never attain their objective. Anyway the decision had been made, and there was no doubt about the effort was now being made and in real earnest. He warned the suppliers to he on their guard, and not to judge people at their ] own valuation, but rather by. their! record or by results. Mr. Goodfellow then referred to the election campaign at present in progress on the lines already reported in these columns. I Referring to the A. J. Sinclair charges ] j put forward by the committee, Mr. Good- i fellow stated that he would leave this j ' matter to Mr. Fulton, but he would just i j like to say in passing that the whole j I object of these charges was to cause dis- ! i sension amongst the company's eup- | plier-=. The statements were intended to l convey to the farmer the one fixed idea that he had his butterfat payments reduced on account of dried milk losses. ' ( This was not so—the report showed I clearly that only £8600 odd had been paid cut of the general account durinz the past five or six j'ears. whereas the ; profits other than from butterfat exceeded that sum annually. It was all a question of business policV. and the j commission—Mr. J. R. Fow and the Hon. ! j Geo. Fowlds—had endorsed the directors'' action. What further argument was ! therefore necessary,? He felt that per- ! I haps the time had arrived when the I South Auckland co-operative companies I should establisii a secret service fund, I that would be used to find out why | some people can spend such a lot of, time off their farms running around the ! country. j The anti-control party, said Mr. Good- ] fellow, could best use as their medium i men who were, as it were, '-friends of the farmer." Obviously it would be useI less to send canvassers. Some of >these J so-called "friends of the farmer" might ;be paid big sums to do the job. and in ! other cases the political expectations I (laughter) or the vanity of a person j might be made use of. | In conclusion, Mr. Goodfellow made an appeal to all shareholders to be loyal. jfor they were being attacked. They j were, in his opinion, on the eve of a great advance by means of control, and it I would be a frightful calamity if they I let go when success was almost at hand. A divided board of directors was use- ! less, and would only end In disaster. ,The present members" had instituted the existing policy, and should be given a chance to carry it out successfully. The speaker sat down amidst great applause. Messrs. Drnes Fulton and T. L. Hames also spoke, the latter dealing with the proposed alterations in the articles of association. The meeting was very orderly until the end. when a misunderstanding arose as to whether an amendment to a motion had been moved, the chairman beinounder the impression that no amend"ment was moved. Mr. E. Thomas, of Paketahu. moved the following resolution, which was! seconded by Mr. .A. J. deary; '"After listening to the full and frank statements of the company's affairs by Mr. Goodfellow and Mr. Dynes Fulton, this large and representative meeting of shareholders and suppliers of the Xew Zealand Co-op- I erative Dairy Company. Limited, express its entire confidence in the directors managing-director and staff of tie com' pany." This was carried by a large and whelming majority with cheers.