NATIONAL MARKETING SCHEME

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 261, 29 July 1921, Page 5

NATIONAL MARKETING SCHEME

Sir,—As a primary producer I have read with interest a controversy in your columns between Messrs. G. Anderson and S. Turner upon a suggested national marketing scheme for the disposal of our primary products which is being brought up as a remit before the next Dominion Conference, and which I, among many farmers in this district, hope will have the success it deserves. This scheme is based on tho Danish system so successfully carried out in that country, and although Mr. Turner denies its existence, Mr. Anderson’s source of information is official, whereas the former’s is not. Every intelligent farmer realises that in (boss days of trusts and combines we must keep our products in our own hands; by so doing tho trusts have nothing to sell and nothing to manipulate. If Mr. Turner had read his opponent’s letter mors carefully he would have been relieved of a good deal of anxiety in his concern for the welfare of tho farmer, who does not propose to undertake, himself, all that the scheme implies, nor to abolish the recognised channels through which our produce has been distributed; the mercantile houses will be equally indispensable now as heretofore. It is the system of co-operation and co-ordina-tion that is aimed at, and to eliminate undue competition from outsiders. Mr. Turner has, however, given the farmer some good advice, and has unwittingly endorsed the scheme. He states that the distribution and marketing of our products is a science which the farmer can know nothing about, implying that science is, and has been employed, whereas it is the lack of science that the farmer at present deplores. He advises the farmer "to see to it that'shipments go from this country better than they did in 1912, to ensure the employment of sufficient boats, even delivery, eliminating congestion," etc., etc. Why did not the “men of science” do this? In the national scheme the shipping problem- is considered, and these reforms would be easy to effect. Only on the piece of advice given, viz., "Let the farmer see to the increased production of those primary products that pay best,” 1 I would ask for a little more information on behalf of thousands of farmers who hold mountainous country, would he advise the growing of grain, or incline more to the production of root crops? Mr. Turner’s last letter, is a realistic pen-picture of a whale in a flurry. I. am, etc., J. C. W. GREENSILL. Ohingaroa. Zuly 22.