FREEZING WORKS OWNERSHIP

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25933, 13 October 1949, Page 6

FREEZING WORKS OWNERSHIP

PRODUCER CONTROL SUPPORTED COMMITTEE’S REPORT TO HOUSE (New Zealand Press Association.) WELLINGTON, October 12. Any further extension of the control of the meat processing industry in this country by overseas concerns was undesirable and should be prevented, said the Agricultural and Pastoral Committee in a report presented in the House of Representatives this evening. The committee considered this was in the interests of primary producers and of New Zealand’s economy generally. The committee was reporting on a Southland petition that sought the issue of a licence for a new freezing works for Southland. Its report, which is to be discussed to-morrow evening, was presented by the chairman (Mr G. H. O. Wilson). The committee reported that it endorsed the announced policy of the Meat Board on the control of freezing works in New Zealand. It also recorded its approval of the general policy of Federated Farmers to encourage producer control of the processing and marketing of primary products. The committee said it therefore believed that the Meat Board should foster the development of New Zea-land-owned works, especially of those in which producers had major control, and should take every opportunity open to it to prepare the way towards the co-operative ownership oi this industry, in which so many workers were engaged and with which farmers were so vitally concerned. On the petition itself, the committee had no recommendation to make.