POTATO BOARD POLICY

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27824, 24 November 1955, Page 10

POTATO BOARD POLICY

CRITICISM BY THREE GROWERS FARMER “WANTS TO BE LEFT ALONE” r “The bogies which Mr Blair raises c are surely of his own imagining. We F believe that all the potato grower g wants is to be left alone to get on with the job of farming his land c and feeding the public,” says a statement by three growers, Messrs D. T Goode. Hawkins road, R. Hussey, £ Belfast, and W. K. Muir, Kaiapoi. 1 They were commenting on a policy 5 statement by the chairman of the c New Zealand Potato Board (Mr G. 3 H. Blair), published in ’The Press” c on November 14. s The growers’ statement says: ‘The t first point in which we w’ould join I issue with the chairman is where he . says that growers adjacent to the 1 centres of consumption are the ones J desiring the abolition of the insurance 1 principle. I “At a meeting of growers held on < September 17, at Addington, repre- f sentatives from 29 districts, from the r Ashley in the north, to Rakaia in ' the south, and as far west as Annat, ] passed a motion of no confidence in 4 the potato board by 75 votes to 25. J Thus it is not only growers near the city of Christchurch who are 1 dissatisfied. < ’The reasons for this decision are s that the board has completely failed 1 in its efforts towards orderly market- 1 ing to cover the cost of production. < The raising of the levy from 13s to ’ 30s is far too severe a cost to growers for the nebulous benefits of insur- ’ ance. “Mr Blair takes the Government to task for deciding in 1948 to cease ! contract growing. Surely the tax- : payer will support any government ’ which gives up a system involving : the paying out to growers of £140,000 1 for wasted potatoes? “We believe that the majority of growers do not wish to lean on the Consolidated Fund, but being individualists, wish to market their own i potatoes. Mr Blair talks of black • market costs to the public. Surely . he knows by now that whenever there , are fixed prices, black markets ' develop. Costs of Imports “He talks also of the cost of im- : porting potatoes in years of shortage. . We would say that ever since New ; Zealand was first colonised, a system of free enterprise has kept the public largely supplied with local production. “It is true that we have had years of shortage and years of over-supply. This is inevitable with a commodity which is so much affected by seasonal conditions. If the public have dear potatoes one year, medium prices another year, and cheap another year, it averages out largely to their satisfaction, and having tried all the efforts of the planners at orderly marketing with such conspicuous failure, it is surely high time to return to the road which built New Zealand, and I

lhat is. the law of suply and demand, says the statement.

A further comment, signed by Messrs. Hussey and Muir, says: “Since the statement was written, we have read with interest the report of discussions held between Mr W. J. Fletcher of Waimate, a member of the board, and representatives of North Island grower associations, held in Christchurch on November 22. “We heartily support the remarks of the North Island growers. We note that they are prepared to pay 5s a ton levy and draw no benefits.

"Although this would in part be satisfactory to us, we are strongly of the opinion that insuarnce should be for those who want it. We consider that if we wish to withdraw from the insurance scheme altogether we should be permitted to do so without being asked for even a levy of 5s a ton, which is quite a considerable item under today’s conditions.”