DAIRY FARMERS' APATHY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 141, 12 December 1923, Page 4

DAIRY FARMERS' APATHY

I A reading of the speeches and voluminous correspondence in the newspapers when the Dairy Produce Export Control Bill was under discussion would lead any average person to believe that—as some said—if the Bill were not passed the great dairy industry would be ruined, or—as others said—if ifc were, then the cows of the Dominion might as well be allowed to go dry, for all that mattered. It was not difficult to form a mental picture of dairy farmers distraught by the very serious character of the great issue placed before them. But what really happened when Parliament, having decided that the Bill should become law, placed on the farmers themselves the responsibility of saying whether it should' or should not function? Of 55,904 farmers entitled to vote, only 31,692 exercised their right, and of these 153 sent in informal papers. 'A great majority, however, voting in favour of operation of the Act, the next important step was the election of the Board of Control of twelve members, of which nine were to be elected by farmers and to represent producers' interests. The success or failure of the Act depends upon that Board of-Control, and especially i upon the nine men the producers . themselves shall elect. Much is said to-day of the monetary value of the dairying industry of the Dominion, and the imposing figure of £16,000,000 is frequently quoted to emphasise the fact; but the improvement in herds and their enlargement, together with the opening up of more dairy land, wjll soon bring the figure up to £20,000,000. Into,the hands of a Board of twelve men, of whom nine shall be directly farmers' representatives, then, will be committed the disposal of this enormous material wealth, the ,product of farmers. But how are the farmers taking it? The poll for the' nine members of the Board of Control closes to-morrow, yet up to .the present only about one-third of the producers, have voted. Such indifference, on so greafi a matter is .really deplorable. This is the kind of thing that opens the way for any amount of trouble due to tactlessness or worse, offering an inducement to the talkative to shoulder aside the practical in the management not only of dairy farmers' affairs but of public business in general.