C.F.M. TAKEOVER Criticism Of Meat Board, Government

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31922, 25 February 1969, Page 18

C.F.M. TAKEOVER Criticism Of Meat Board, Government

(New Zealand Frets Association) TIMARU, February 24. The Government and the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board were both strongly attacked tonight for declining to “interfere” in the proposed takeover of the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company by the Waitaki Farmers’ Freezing Company.

The attack was made by the South Canterbury representative on the electoral college of the Meat and Wool boards (Mr W. B. Trotter).

Mr Trotter was asked to comment on the announcement last Friday by the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Talboys) of the Government’s acceptance of the board’s recommendation that there should be no intereference. Mr Trotter said he believed the meat Industry was deliberately licensed to .prevent “this sort of thing." The half-yearly meeting of the college, to be held late in March, would be “very stormy,” with Canterbury delegates, in particular, asking some “hard questions.” “In 1917 President Wilson, of the United States became so concerned with the operations of five American companies that he set up a commission with full powers; nothing was private to it, and it even had right of access to

private correspondence,” Mr Trotter said.

“As a result of the commission’s inquiry President Wilson proved that the five companies had as their objective the control of the food surpluses of the world. “He issued his report in 1918 to all exporting countries so that they could take suitable action to protect their production.” Mr Trotter said that the Massey Government in 1922 saw fit to pass the Meat Act, a very comprehensive document .that was deliberately aimed at ensuring competition for New Zealand’s meat production. Test Of Time “That act has stood the test of time,” he said. “It has worked very well. The provisions of it, I think, are of the utmost importance to meat production.” Mr Trotter said that if the takeover was successful the Government and the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, by their failure to administer their act, would have deprived Canterbury meat producers of competition important to the trade. The takeover would create a precedent which would allow anybody to take over the whole of the meat industry in New Zealand, if they had sufficient money. “And some of the operators have sufficient money,” Mr Trotter said. “The Government has been selling the primary producers of this country down the river for quite some years, and this would just about cap it, in my opinion. “This industry was deliberately licensed to prevent this

very thing, to prevent someone getting too much control, and to throw that away is, in my view, absurd. “I think we have got to take the gloves off in this matter, and I think the electoral college will have a very stormy meeting when it holds its half-yearly meeting late in March. “There will be some very hard questions asked, and I won’t be the only one asking them. “All the Canterbury delegates will want to know why the board didn’t administer the Meat Act as it should be administered, particularly section 73, under which I think both the board and the Government should have said ‘no, it is not in the interests of the country that we should permit the takeover.’ “If they permit this takeover they will create a precedent which could be the most dangerous thing they could do to the meat industry of this country.”