DAIRY PRODUCE BOARD.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 221, 18 September 1929, Page 4

DAIRY PRODUCE BOARD.

THE FINANCIAL POSITION. NEARLY £32,000 INVESTED. In view of the criticism which has been levelled at the New Zealand Dairy Produce Control Board by recent meetings of dairy companies, some details concerning its financial position will be of interest. The books arc balanced at July 31, and at that time the liabilities to sundry creditors totalled £9190, whilst the assets stood as follows: — ASSET;-: £ Cash at bank 2,089 Sundry debtors 5,077 Investments—New Zealand Government stock 31,90." Motor car 227 Offlco furniture 2,275 Films of dairy industry .. 100 Thermograph and hygrometer 36 Motor van (London) .... HO .Silver challenge cups 175 43,134 It will be seen that .the board holds a strong position financially, for it has in investments and cash £34,000. Details of receipts and expenditure are supplied in the following table:— For year Levy on ended dairy Total July 31. produca. Expenses. £ £ 3925* 77.9."6 31,289 1920 .-..; 58,517 20,937 1927 ....... 00,500 54,010 192R .... 33,711 37,528 1929 35,277 27.08S 201,027 177,358 •Eighteen months period. The difference between expenses and levy over the period shown is £83,609. Crediting the assets there still remains £40,535 to be accounted for. This has probablv been spent on advertising. The published accounts of 1927 showed, in addition to the expenses account £20,000 spent in advertising in the United Kingdom, and a similar entry or memo appeared the following year.

Among details of expenditure, expenses of board meetings, members' honoraria, and travelling expenses totalled £4632. Expenses of management at head office totalled £7068, and at London £5292.

These three entries alone aggregate nearly £17,000 per annum, certainly a heavy bill for what would be termed in a trading concern the "overhead." No problems of financing confront the gentlemen who control this expenditure, their job being purely one of organisation. Charges which they incur in carrying out the board's work, such as inspection of pnoduce, shipping expenses, and advertising, are all additional to the £ 17,000 just referred to. Amongst the expenses incurred is an annual subsidy to the "Exporter," £3352. Since this paper was started four years ago, no less a sum than £11,691 of the dairymen's funds has been paid to keep it going. Just what service the "Exporter" serves is hard to understand, as the board still depends chiefly upon the daily papers to publish the vital facts relative to the industry.

For And Against. An instance of the criticism levelled at the board nowadays occurred at Pahiatua recently. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Rexdale Dairy Company the chairman, Mr. P. Lawson, said there was not the slightest doubt that the 0 Dairy Produce Board was a failure so far as the main business of such an institution was concerned. The failure to regulate shipments was an absoluts scandal. It was absolutely ridiculous for the chairman, Mr. W. A. lorns, to be travelling abput the country telling the farmers what wonderful benefits they were receiving. _As a matter of fact they were receiving no benefits which could possibly compensate for the losses taking place. It was unanimously resolved that, in the opinion of the meeting, the question of the continuation of the Dairy Board should be seriously considered by the dairy industry as a whole, with a view to a drastic revision of the personnel so as to secure members of the board being wholly representative of dairy farmers only. At the annual meeting of the Konini Dairy Company the chairman, Mr. M. Alpass, said the operations of the Dairy Control Board were, in bis opinion, now more of a detriment to the farmer than anything else. The board was too expensive, for ond thing. The secretary received a salary of £1500 a year, which was altogether too much. All the members, in fact, were paid too much. It was the farmer who had to struggle on the land to pay these huge salaries. Without a board at all the National Dairy Association could carry out the functions adequately, with the assistance of the High Commissioner for New Zealand in London to direct its advertising compaign.

About the same time as these meetings were held Mr. lorns, chairman of the board, addressed the annual meeting of shareholders in the Featherston Co-opera-tive Dairy Company. At the conclusion of the meeting a vote of thanks and confidence in Mr. lorns and the board was carried. The mover said the board was an immense benefit to the dairy industry. The board,'is faced with a difficult problem just now', to satisfy the South Island Dairy Association, which has protested .vigorously '.against the. action .of the board in approving a form of contract submitted by tUe Exporters Association/which, it allege, appears to have been framed solely, "iii ti)6 interests ot exporters.