DAIRY CONTROL BOARD

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 52, 29 August 1925, Page 9

DAIRY CONTROL BOARD

OPPOSITION IN NEW ZEALAND

■"WILD CAT ADVENTURE."

(PROM OUR OWS CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 9th July.

A statement by Mr. Jacob Marx, chairman of the Mangatoke Co-opera-tive Dairy Company, regarding the proposed Dairy Control is published in the curent nCfmber of "The Grocer." Mr. Marx gives evidence that serious opposition to complete control may be found among at least some of the producers.

"Now that dairy producers have been notified that absolute control ia to bo enforced," writes Mr. Marx, "it is about time we realised what we are and what absolute control means. The board's powers are absolute and practically unlimited. To quote clause 3 of the Act: 'All dairy produce of which tho board assumes absolute control shall be shipped as the board directs, and shall be sold q,nd disposed of only by the board or by the direction of the board at such times and in such manner and on such terms aa the board in its discretion determines.' It is surely a marvellous clause, and actually hands the New Zealand dairy producers' living, without qualification or restriction, to a gmall body of men, who may or may not be • possessed of sound judgment or free from bias or favour. It is difficult to grasp the board's full powers. They may appoint 500 or 5000 assistants at what salary they please, employ agents on what pay or commission they please. Mr. Grounds (chairman of the" Control Board) has already intimated that f.o.b. sales, except by the board, are forbidden. What opportunities' are offered for patronage, corruption, and muddlement! "Present conditions of marketing, whatever their drawbacks, have carried us along very fairly during the past, twenty-five years; progress payments Kive been mad,e to suppliers at or about the 20th of each month for the previous month's milk or cream without one payment during thoso twenty-five years being missed. Our finance under present conditions is all that one could ask for, any one of the principal Home firms being most liberal in their setting up of credits, thus making advances to suppliers in the first half of the year easy for directors if the market happens, as it has done in different years, to be below advances. Adjustments can be,.and are always, made as the season advances. This will be altered under ■ absolute control, under which I cannot imagine we will get the same easy finance. We part with the produce under compulsion to the Control Board, and outside of the very small local consumption trade, have to look to the Control Board for every pfenny. Freight, exchange, and the Control Board's current expenses will be a first charge on advances. . It haa been explained that the representatives of the Home • firms can be done without under control, and thus a huge saving effected. Even this has its other side, as commission to Home firms, which includes their New Zealand agents, only gets paid after the .produce is'apld, while under control the huge Btaff required will have to be .paid fortnightly as from the commencement of the season—lst July. As I have already stated of Britain's imports, control -will have about half the overseas cheese and one-fifth the overseas butter. . . . Speaking as a producer to dairy farmers, I say that the board's absolute control scheme is a dangerous wild-cat adventure that will do untold harm to the industry, pila on extra unnecessary expense, greatly reduce monthly advances, result in much more protracted payment of balances, and. does not present any one attractive factor."