PRODUCE CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 116, 13 November 1923, Page 8

PRODUCE CONTROL

DEFENCE OF LEGISLATION

10 THI EBITOB,

Sir,—The impression intended to be conveyed by your sub-leader of 9th November, in which you quote—apart from context and surrounding discussion Mr. Massey as saying that farmers had only to ask for legislation and he would grant it them, casts a most unwarranted reflection upon a gentleman who during recent years has faced and overcome difficulties which has crushed politically, and in cases physically, every other Prime Minister within the Empire. Knowing as I do the history of the control legislation from A to Z, I have no hesitation m saying that Mr. Massey is being most grossly misrepresented in respect to same, for no other than political purposes. ' When, in. 1921, meat and wool prices fell to such a point as did not pay for transport charges, much less production costs, a few of us urged upon Mr. Massey the need for some action, as the prolonging over another season or two of the conditions then existing, would inevitably mean not only insolvency to pastorahsts but financial chaos to the country as a whole. Mr. Massey told us that, while he fully ' recognised the gravity of the position,, he could suggest little to remedy the position, "unless we as pastoralists combined along co-opera-tive or other lines to fight the manipulating interests at work in the London end, and against which the ,Home authorities were unable, or unwilling, to act. We assured Mr. Massey that to hope for any benefit along the lines suggested was futile without legislative support along lines of compulsion: It was then that Mr. Massey made the statement (since made .to dairymen) which ran as follows:—"Prove to me that there is a substantial majority of pastoralists in favour of compulsory powers being given, and I will bring down the legislation; provided that existing contracts are honoured and that any financial engagements honestly entered into under the laws of the country are not prejudiced." I can now say without fear of contradiction that neither ' the legislation nor those responsible for its administration have deviated from those principles in regard to the meat control. I admit Hhat recent attempts have been made to force the board away from that great principle, if I am correctly informed, but I. feel sure that, if so, those responsible do not represent but a very small fraction of pastoralists. I have no reason to doubt but the same honesty of purpose is in safe keeping in the hands of dairymen. Let those few city men making all the noise remember that the produce is ours, gained at the expense and toil and worry of many hard-pressed men and women. If the Press, for ulterior or other motives, chooses to raise the town versus country cry we cannot help that. Like city men, who have protected their interests tor years past by associations and honourable understandings, we intend to do our best to preserve our interests by the only method likely to succeed. We have no animosity toward city interests, and have no wish to do them harm.' We have no fight with the bona fide old-time pioneering commission firms, who past and present have, and are, doing yeoman service to producers in general, and several of whom, recognising as they did that our best interests were inseparable from their own, gave us .useful and valuable 1 assistance in passing the legislation inquestion, although we necessarily differed on several points. . .». It is the get-rich-quick speculator (who sooner or later becomes- a manipulator) who is the bane to-day, the world over, of bona fide producers, traders, and consumers alike. In all lands he is doing more to bring.upon us the calamity of State socialism than all other sections put together. Time-serving politicians, with a purchased Press, are often their tools, while the economic world is their' two-up ring, into which double-headed coins soon find a way. In conclusion, jugt one word in respect to the State finance clause of the Meat Control Act. , The Prime Minister, the Minister in Charge, and the co'minittee acting with them were all against the principle, but when suggestions were put forward, amounting to threats that finance would not be found for the scheme unless, the compulsory clauses were dropped, we had no other alternative; as we knew from past experience that such would render the legislation futile. Personally, I know the 'clause to be an objectionable one, and I believe I am voicing the opinions of all members of the board when I say that the clause could now be struck out with safety. As in the days ofithe B.N.Z.' smash, desperate conditions required desperate remedies. In the dark days of--1921 the position of we meat and wool men was desperate to the point only those intimately in touch with the position knew. Our wool position Was saved—notwithstanding the opposition yells of the-British Press—by the almost watertight conditions attached^' to ■"' the B.A.W.R.A. control, to which' brokers gave loyal adherence. How'"niuch the meat control helped the position no man can say, but, for good or evil, we have set our hands to the plough, and there is going to be no turning back:—l am etc.,' ' , .

A. D. M'LEOD, M.P. 10th November.