'ONLY CAMOUFLAGE'

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 14

'ONLY CAMOUFLAGE'

DAIRY CONFERENCE.

UNSOUND QUOTA SYSTEM.

SOUTH AUCKLAND PROTEST.

(By Telegraph.—Own Oorrtispondent.)

HAMILTON, Tuesday.

Tlio assertion that the conference called by the Prime Minister to consider the position of the dairy industry was "only camouflage" and was really designed to pave the way to the adoption of quota restrictions on New Zealand dairy produce exports to Britain was made by Mr. W. Goodfellow, managing director of Amalgamated Dairies, Ltd., at a meeting of the South Auckland Dairy Association to-day.

"I have been told that the Government has already got a quota scheme cut and dried which involves a reduction in the number of cows and other proposals," said Mr. Goodfellow. "The whole thing is ridiculous. It is the Government's intention to get us to the conference and then lecture us on the quota system, which we consider an unsound system." The speaker expressed the opinion that the Government had already given a promise to Mr. T. Baxter, the British farmers' representative who recently visited New Zealand regarding the quota, but it dared not go further. If a majority at the coining Wellington conference agreed to a quota, the dairy farmers of the Dominion were as good as gone, because the Government would immediately obtain an Order-in-Council to implement their objective.

Mr. A. J. Sinclair, secretary-manager of the Te Awamutu Co-operative Dairy Co., Ltd., expressed satisfaction that the conference delegates from the Farmers' Union had decided not to raise the question of monetary reform, which, he said, liad nothing to do with the quota problem. If a quota were imposed we would be faced with a surplus of 10,000 tons or 15,000 tons of butter with only one possible outlet —our local market. He doubted whether any reduction in the retail price would stimulate consumption, as saturation point was already nearly reached in the Dominion. "We have a disorderly, system of selling butter on the local market now," added Mr. Sinclair. "If that continues under the quota system dairy companies will attempt to sell as high a proportion of their output 011 the local market as possible. Price-cutting will bo increased tenfold. If we have to sell cheap butter here the loss should be spread evenly. If the quotk is introduced, so many farmers will go bankrupt that production will be automatically reduced." The chairman, Mr. S. A. Ferguson (Motumaoho), pointed out that if the price of butter on the British' market were raised as a result of the quota, margarine would compete and replace butter. He considered that the margarine groups in England and financial interests in New Zealand were responsible mainly for the quota agitation. The resolution forwarded by the \Vaikato executive of the Farmers' Union was unanimously supported as follows: "That this meeting is_ emphatically opposed to the imposition of quota restrictions against dairy exports a3 being; vicious and dangerous in principle."