AGAINST COMPULSION

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 13

AGAINST COMPULSION

A COMMERCIAL VIEW

CHAMBER OF COMJIERCE RESOLTJ- '.■'■".-. '• TION. ■■'•"■

The president of the Wellington Chamber of : Commerce, Mr: John Myers,-re-ported at a meeting of the council of 'that body yesterday that a cable message had been received froni : the London Chamber of Commerce,' stating that It was reported by members of the provi-sipn-trade section of the chamber that legislation .was being considered by the New Zealand Parliament affecting the sale of butler. The London ' Chamber 6trongly. urged that nothing be done to create pools. or to prevent a free and open.market. The object in calling the. meeting, continued Mr. Myers, was-to consider the above message, which had been' communicated,- together ■ with the resolution passed by the 'V^ellington Chamber, to the Auckland, Canterbury,and Otago Chambers. Letters had also been sent' to the Prime Minister, to the Leader of the Opposition, ■ and to .the Leader of the Labour.Party. Thespeak_er remarked that the Dairy: Control Bill -.was at that moment being considered by the House,, and he suggested waiting'till they learned the fate of the measure before replying to the London Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. John T. Martin thought they should reply that the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce were strongly opposed to pooling or arbitrary control of the primary products of this country, under Government. protection, ■ but the cable.might be withheld till to-morrow, by which' time the fate of the Bill would probably, have been decided. : The reason why dairy factories had set out to push the measure through < Parliament had been their • expressed dissatisfaction —first, with the shipping; and secondly, w^th the marketing. He contended, that the shipping people had been unnecessarily blamed for the 6tate of the market in England in the early part of the year, when the collapse took place, in butter from 200s per ;cwt, -c.i.f., to 140s per cwt,. c.i.f.,;. and cheese! from 145s per cwt to 85s per cwt, ci.f.. That fall was i due not to the fact, as many ; factories fti this country contended, that a' large number of our boats carrying New Zealand produce, arrived in England on a certain date, but was due 'to altogether different reasons.. As a. matter' of fact, whether the boats arrived a week or two earlier or later had no appreciable effect oh the market, .because importers at Home knew, the quantity of butter and cheese 1, on every .--boat that left this country and other countries:- So long as the stocks in 1 England were sufficient for the immediate needs, the fact of the additional produce not being there within ' a day or two did not affect the market at all. He wanted to emphasise 4his—and this was the opinion of leading dealers'in dairy produce in. England to-day—that »the drap in markets was the result of the occcpation of the Euhr by the French. ' That, occupation' brought" about a- collapse of the exchanges and in the trading-in butter and cheese between- the European countries. Denmark, instead of supplying the territories near her, sent 96 per cent, of her produce to England, and other countries began dumping their surElus supplies into England,- because they ad no. market in the countries sufferingfrom the collapse of the exchanges. That resulted in 3000 tons of butter per week going into-England, when the consumption was only 1800 tons per week. The surpltas, therefore, had to go'into cool storage. This occurred, too, when the season of production in Europe was getting into full swing, and when Britain, being the only other market; -■ was made the dumping ground of the whole of the surplus, so that the shipping com-' panics were unfairlj blamed. -It was a question of economic' conditions, over which neither the English shipping companies nor the dairy producers in this country had any control. Under similiar conditions it would be impossiDie for a dairy control board to affect the market, or do anything in regard to restoration' when the supply excelled the demand. In addition to the Chambers of Commerce, there were 183 factories who were opposed-to the- compulsory powers, but if the Bill became law they would have to conform to the provisions of the measure, as would the other 22S factories. The outlook was particularly hopeful owing. to the fact .that -the Northern Hemisphere would this season fca continually dependent upon the South-

efn Hemisphere for l its dairy produce supply.' "The United States' market" was now drawing its sutmhes from Canada and, in consequence, Canada was sending less of her produce to the United Kingdom than formerly. He believed, that before many months New Zealand would be shipping dairy produce to the United' States. The prices of our dairy produce were satisfactory, and it appeared that we were in for a v.»ry good season; and what a .dairy control board' could do under, such conditions was very puzzline The President: "They would. take credit for the : advcince in price" Mr. Martin alluded to what had happened in Queensland in .regard to the holding back of the sale of dairy produce and the resultant loss. The conditions.here were very favourable, Bnd there was less call for interference with the market to-day than there ever had been.

It was agreed to await the fate of tha Dairy Control Bill in the Hou«e, and then inform the .London Chamber of Commerce of the result, • and add that the majority of the Chambere of Commerce of New Zealand were opposed to the: compulsory provisions. .