The Press FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1935. The Executive Commission of Agriculture

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21631, 15 November 1935, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1935. The Executive Commission of Agriculture

| The address given last night by .Mr David Jones j j on the aims and methods ol the Executive Com- ; mission of Agriculture is, for two reasons in j particular, worth careful study. The first is • that the commission has been denounced imi moderately and unreasonably as a dictatorship > designed to rob the farmer of his economic freedom. The second is that, of all the experi--1 ments in government winch have been inaugu- ; rated, in New Zealand in the last lev.' years, the ; Executive Commission of Agriculture is the i most interesting and the most hopeful. Because if has been in operation for only a short : time, and because it has preferred to go about ; n.- work cautiously and quietly, the public has : nt; in the present had no opportunity of dis- | ■■o.eriiig in any detail what it is doing' or ati tempting to do. Mr Jones's address fills this j gap. The most important point that emerges j from it is that, although the commission has ; been vested with alarmingly wide powers of : compulsion, it has not used those powers and is ! apparently determined not to use them until ; other methods have failed. Mr Jones illusi trated this point by a detailed description of i the commission's efforts to reorganise the : manufacture of butter and cheese in certain I area.-, in (lie North Island. Without the use or ■ ; threat ol' compulsion, substantia! progress has i ' been made in the elimination of small and ■ uneconomic units and m tin- reduction of ! iran.--pi.iii charges by better organisation. It i ; anparent from uliat .Mr Jones says that a large ■ ret am (if the dairy farming community ;.• ;e'. are iliat inelficioiiey und. was! e have crept, into the- co-opei'ati\'e system and is not merely willing but anxious to introduce reforms. The : function of the commissiun lias been merely to ! investigate the facts of a situation, to suggest | the improvements that seem desirable, and 1.0 j ! assist in any negotiations that may lie neces- '• ! sary to give effect to a scheme of refoi'm. As ; ; Dv. Marsdcn and Professor Riddel very wisely '' remai'ked in their pamphlet, on the dairy in- , • dustry, Ihe fanners of New Zealand cannot be : dragooned into efficiency. If the industry is to . ■ make up the ground it has lost, to some of its [ ' competitors, the impetus must come from the ; farmers themselves. All that an organisation : : like the Executive Commission of Agriculture i can do is to advise, inform, and encourage.