MEAT RATIONING

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 117, 12 February 1944, Page 6

MEAT RATIONING

Statement By South Island

Producers NEED FOR CONSULTATION (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, February 11. The following statement on the subject of meat rationing was issued by Messrs. William Dee (provincial president of (lie Farmers’ Union), A. C. Leary (chairman of Hie Otago Primary Production Council) and A. C. Cameron (chairman of the South Island Fat Stock Committee) “The statement issued by Mr. A. P. O’Shea, Dominion secretary of the Farmers’ Union, to the effect that the rationing controller, Mb. Thomas, did consult representatives of the Farmers’ Union and the Meat Board in connexion with the meat rationing scheme, thong- reassuring up to a point, comes as a surprise to us. It has also collie as a surprise -to Mr. J.ames Begg, a prominent member of the Meat Board an'd Dominion president of the Primary Producers’ Federation. Sureiiy it would not have been too much to expect that if consultations had taken place, then members of the Meat Board and Dominion executive members of the Farmers’ Union and provincial officers might have been advised, specially when prominent members of the Master Butchers’ Association nearly a fortnight, ago made it public that they had been consulted and even went so far as to publish details of the rationing scheme. “The sole reason why we are so anxious that authorized representatives of the primary producers be consulted prior io the introduction of any rationing scheme is to ensure that the scheme introduced will not lead to a still further decline in production. The position in thp South Island Is entirely different from the North, and this is not yet appreciated in Wellington. Unfortunately the North Island point of view dominated the'discussions in connexion with price fixation and we have yet to learn of any .South Inland producer with'knowledge of beef production having been consulted prior to its introduction. We are anxious' that this should be avoided when it comes to the introduction o fa meat rationing scheme.”