The Press TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1936. The Executive Commission of Agriculture

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21972, 22 December 1936, Page 10

The Press TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1936. The Executive Commission of Agriculture

In an interview printed in " The Press" yesterday the deputy-chairman of the Executive Commission of Agriculture, Sir Francis Frazer, gave an account of the progress made by the commission with the task of rationalising the manufacture of butter and cheese in New Zealand. The past difficulties of the dairy industry have been due, in a greater measure than is generally realised, to the failure of the factory system to develop in accordance with modern needs and changed transport conditions. The position was thus summarised in the report of the recent Dairy Industry Commission:—

In the early days of the dairy industry whole milk from farms was carted to butter factories or creameries, which were erected at points that could be conveniently reached by a sufficiently large number of dairy .farmers to provide the supply necessary for economic manufacture. These factories, once established, have in most cases remained, notwithstanding that the introduction of the home separation system, the evolution of motor transport, and the provision of good roads have entirely altered the situation, and rendered it unnecessary to maintain a large number of small factories. . . . The position is that although development in butter manufacture in recent years has been consistently towards larger manufacturing units and a wider range of collection of supplies, the multiplicity of factories has remained and led to vicious and uneconomic competition.

The efforts of the Executive Commission of Agriculture have been directed mainly to the elimination of unnecessary factories through amalgamations and to the zoning of supply areas in order to prevent uneconomic competition and keep down transport charges. As Sir Francis Frazcr's review shows, zoning systems have been adopted over the greater part of the North Island, and good progress has been made in the South Island. In addition, many amalgamations have taken place or are in the process of negotiation. It is worth noting that all this has been done without no direct use of compulsory powers and without any specificlegislative sanction. The commission's main weapon has been expert knowledge. It seems natural to contrast its quiet effectiveness with the elaborate and pretentious administrative structure which has been created for the purpose of " planning " the secondary industries of the Dominion and to ask whether it would not be better to seek a more economical and efficient organisation of secondary industry by the methods which have already been proved so effective in the dairy industry. Three men, with the assistance of only a small handful of officials, have shown themselves able to rationalise one of the most important industries in the country without fuss and, so far, without recourse to compulsion. The Bureau of Industries, with its large membership, its small army of officials, and its specific legislative charter is not likely to be either as flexible in operation or successful in its work. Nor can it be argued that the problems of dairy produce manufacture are so different from the problems of secondary industry as to render the comparison invalid. Most of the secondary industries of New Zealand suffer from a redundance of small production units; and this is the weakness which the Executive Commission of Agriculture is engaged in eliminating from the manufacture of dairy produce.