THE PRESS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1980. Wheel turns full circle

Press, 19 September 1980, Page 12

THE PRESS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1980. Wheel turns full circle

The election of a new chairman of the Wool Board last week was of more than usual interest It meant the elevation to leadership of the woolgrowing industry of Mr J. D. Mcllraith, of Hakataramea, South Canterbury, a man who was once at loggerheads with the board. Mr Mcllraith’s election recalls one of the most turbulent periods in the wool industry’s history. Lessons learnt then are likely to be remembered for a long time by farmer politicians. It was a period when a revolution occurred in the industry, but was conducted in the best democratic traditions. Years of studies of wool' marketing, prompted by the notorious fluctuations of the wool market, came to a head in 1972 when the Wool Marketing Corporation Establishment Company proposed setting up a wool marketing corporation with powers to compulsorily acquire the shorn clip and sell it • on behalf of growers. The Wool Board at the time and its electoral committee, which had lived for a long time with these investigations, gave, the scheme their blessing. They saw it as a logical and sensible development. Then there welled up from the grass roots of the farming industry a growing volume of opposition to this proposal. This opposition was founded on the scheme’s restrictions on growers’ freedom to do as they wished with their wool. Opposition eventually became so great that even after the election at the end of 1972 of a Labour Government, which was philosophically very sympathetic to the scheme, a group of growers organised their own nationwide referendum that indicated the extent of the growers’ discontent. Growers then put on the electoral committee, which elects grower representatives to the Wool Board, a majority of members opposed to the acquisition scheme; this committee in turn elected to the board members who shared similar views. Mr Mcllraith was one of the leaders of the movement against the compul-

sory acquisition of wool and had been in direct opposition to the board. At the end of 1973 he was elected to the board as the change in its composition began to take place. In the end the board received the message from the farms and the scheme, which, in 1972 had seemed on the verge of being implemented, was dropped.

A system has been developed and refined in New Zealand under which growers still have freedom to sell their .wool through several channels yet are given a considerable measure of protection from the chill winds of changing market fortunes. This shelter comes from the board’s market intervention procedures and its minimum prices scheme. Beside this is the Government’s supplementary minimum price scheme. In this way many of the advantages sought by those favouring acquisition have been achieved and the system still retains elements of private enterprise.

It says much for Mr Mcllraith’s wisdom and good sense that a man who was once at loggerheads with the board should now have been elected its chairman. The wheel has turned a full circle. While he remains opposed to the concept of acquisition, Mr Mcllraith agrees that as a result of his experience on the board, he has learned a great deal and that there are many things on which he has changed his opinions. One of his first acts after election was to pay a gracious tribute to his predecessor, Mr J. Clarke, with whom he once strongly disagreed on the acquisition issue. “I consider him a man of outstanding qualities and abilities, and behind him he leaves an industry which is in excellent shape. As the new chairman it is my duty to keep it that way.” Mr Mcllraith, in these words, and the industry through the processes that have enabled him to come to the top, have given a striking example of democracy in action for all those who care to see it.