Plans For Dairy Board And Commission Merger

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29245, 1 July 1960, Page 16

Plans For Dairy Board And Commission Merger

“The Press" Special Service

• WELLINGTON, Juhe 30. The proposals to merge the Dairy Board and the Dairy Products Marketing Commission into one policy-making body to control all aspects of the dairy industry were outlined to the Dominion dairy conference today by Mr A. Linton, chairman of the Dairy Board. The unanimous decisions of the district ward conferences favoured amalgamating the two bodies, he said, and the Government had now agreed to the following proposals:— (1) One consolidated act covering the legislative requirements in connexion with production, manufacture, and marketing. (2) One policy-making "body with 11 producer members, elected on a butterfat basis for their respective districts. , (3) Two separate administrative divisions, marketing being a separate function. i (4) Two deputies associated with the chairman of the new body. These three, plus the general manager of each division, would comprise an executive committee to function between meetings. <5) The Price-fixing Authority would be retained. (6) The new arrangements would be effective from the beginning of the 1961-62 season. Mr Linton said a good deal of thought had been given to the basis of representation, and it was agreed that the new body should be comprised of 11 producer members and, say, two Government representatives. To maintain the present method of representation on a butterfat basis, two additional members would be elected, one from the Waikato and another from Taranaki.

The representation on the new body would be: Northland 2, New Zealand Dairy Company 3, Waikato (excluding New Zealand Dairy Company) 1, Bay of PlentyEast Coast 1, Taranaki 2, Welling-ton-Hawke’s Bay - Nelson - Marlborough 1, rest of the South Island 1. "Tn the new organisation there will be two separate divisions; one for production and industry administration, and the other for marketing and its administration,” said Mr Linton. “When it domes to making policy decisions —and,that is what tiie new body will be doingmembers are in a far better position to reach decisions if they are well informed on the production, manufacturing, and marketing problems of the industry. So far as the day-to-day working of the new organisation is concerned, both sections have trained ad-

ministrative officers whose work will carry on much the same as at present. Responsibilities will be clearly defined and I don’t think there will be any difficulty in having both sections of the organisation working closely together.” One man, as chairman, could not hope to keep closely in touch with everything associated with policy on production, manufacture, administration, and marketing,”'said Mr Linton. For that reason it was thought that there should be two deputies associated with the chairman, one concerned with production and one with marketing. The industry last year agreed that the future basis of financing would be the fixing of a conservative price at the commencement of a season and reliance on payout from surpluses on sales at the end of the season, for something additionaL That really meant that they would be setting money aside' in reserve in years of good prices to meet any losses that might be incurred from time to time.