DAIRY TRADE CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 48, 25 August 1923, Page 6

DAIRY TRADE CONTROL

Notwithstanding' the strong opposition to the Dairy Produce Export Control Bill, it has been passed by the House of Representatives ; but its operation, if it passes the Upper House, is left in the hands of the individual dairy farmer. A plebiscite is to be taken, and every supplier ol milky is to have a vote (whether he exercises it or not), and he must have that vote recorded quickly. Mr. Massey recently said the dairy farmer has only to ask for legislation to get" it, and he has kept his promise. There does not seem any doubt about the result of this poll: there will be a majority for the .operation of the Act; but there will also be a substantial minority of farmers against it, and especially' against the provisions for compulsorily pooling their produce. In this minority we see the cause of much future trouble. The step taken by the Government,''we are convinced, is a very dangerous one. The Government will realise it sooner, perhaps, than it is at present aware; the consumers in New Zealand will presently realise if too ; and the hostility of "Tooley Street" has been provoked by it. The most objectionable feature of the Bill, the compulsory pooling, remains, and we. venture to predict that it will be used as soon as opportunity arises. It is interesting, therefore, to remind readers, "poolites" and 'others of the recent relinquishment of control of price by the Queensland butter pool, consequent on the withdrawal of a large concern, the Kingston Butter Company. Queensland producers, under the cover of their pool, put up the price of butter to many .shillings per hundredweight above London export parity, a step that resulted in heavy importations from New Zealand and the collapse of the Queensland market in Victoria and' New South Wales. The local consumer was exploited, and' relief was only obtained by the, importation of'! Queensland butter from New South Wales to be- sold in Brisbane in competition with other Queensland butter, and underselling it. That is what pooling means to the consumer;. the withdrawal of the Kingston concern from the Queensland pool shows what it means to the producer.