DAIRY CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 119, 16 November 1926, Page 15

DAIRY CONTROL

(To tho Editor.) Sir,—Seeing tho serious position that the dairying-industry has got into, it is well for dairy fanners and the country in general to seriously consider the position, which to a great extent is of our own making. Speaking as a dairy farmer, I say moat emphatically that we have been misled. To start with, the promoters, either through; ignorance or stupidity, made a huge blunder in choosing the name of the board. It is common knowledge that our customers and consumers in tlie Old Country will not tolerate any attempt at controlling or price-fixing, especially of foodstuffs. They contend it savours too much of. American'trust methods. Ihe "Daily Express," in a leading article (about twelve months ago), dealing with our Control Board, ,said it was a pity to see New Zealand was trying to copy American trust methods. When the Control Bill was before the House, the late Prime Minister stated (if my memory is correct) the board was to be the same as the Meat Board, and compulsion would never be üßcd unless it was found to be absolutely necessary. The Meat Board whs then operating, and still is, without Vumpulsion, . although .it has compulsory power. There is no doubt a big portion of dairy farmers and' the community in general expected that the Control Board would at least have given, the scheme twelve months' trial before applying compulsion. The Australian board has been operating for twelve months without absolute control, and as far as I know the producers aro not yet asking for compulsion. Our own. Meat Board has been operating ior several years, and the producers are not yet demanding compulsion, and as far as wo know, the board,. merchants, and producers are working in harmony, whicli unfortunately, is the very reverse with the Control Board,. 1 there is 110 eKnibt a. good number bt dairy farmers .and general public have a very exaggerated idea of our position on the London market. ■ Now, what is the position, first and foremost? England is practically our only market; secondly, we send iibout 22 per cent, of the butter imported there; thirdly, we are compelled to use the ordinary channels (the wholesaler and retailer) to reach our consumers. This is admitted by the board, In the face of those three indisputable tacts it is quite obvious we are not in a- position tp dictate to any of those people, because they can easily do without our stiifl'/aud the?.-have told us so. lue merchants also 'know 'we .have heavy obigatious to meet, AMI we must have casli for our produce, and they know we cannot get it anywhere else. They are under no~ obligation whatever to handle our stuff, because they can and are getting their, requirements elsewnere. 'Supposing, after .a lot of muddling and pin-pricking, we. get their backs up ami they turn round and say they will not handle our stuff, what could we do with it? What would happen if we tried to market our Btuff independent of the merchants, we would be beaten at every turn. There is n,o denying the fact that the merchant is top. dog, and is in a position to pick and'choose, which we are not,, and euoh being the case the Control .Board should'have been extremely cacelul they did not1 iv auy way antagonise Inm. Now, as far as we can learn from all sources, they have done all tli,ey could to antagonise First of air they cut the commission down % per- cent., and if they wanted him to push our stuff, Why didn t they adopt business methods and offer an extra Vz per cent.'to push our sales? Then some of the conditions they were going to impose on- their customers were wbrse than childish, and then as a masterpiece (after the merchants had found the. money)- they were going to fix the price, in fact, to quote a phrase, ""1 hey were going to clean the lot yp in one hit. Now, sir, we know there'is no sentiment in business, and all who .ire free to trade where they like, do '.their-business with those who treat them best. The Control Board ;'camiot . offer.. any, excuse for the muddle they .have-made, because they had the experience of the Danes and Australians to guide them, but apparently with twenty million! ."worth to handle, they got an attack' of swelled head and obsessed with the idea of their "great importance, would not :toli<;.,.advice:,or. listen to anyone, but', went blundering- ahead, flourishing "the big stick," intent on giving air Tooley Street a general "stir up"; that they have succeeded in stirring things "iip is very apparent, also that the board had had a very1 undignified climb clown, and that the Prime Minister has had to : take a-hand and-try, to clean up the hoard's muddling.. .The board-advanced Is id for the butter now being soli in London for a little.over Is 2d; now, I would like to know where the money is to come from to make good theloss on this shipment. Their advance is now Is, and going by trend of market (downward) in past seasons the advance must come still lower, and I. would like to know how many can live and pay their way at less than Is per lb. That, there is. a boycott on, there is no denying, and I• am informed on reliable authority .'that-the,-retailers have a placard in their shop windows stating, "We do not handle or sell New Zealand controlled butter." • - ' ' . I see one correspondent says, have we a right to say what we shall take for our produce;" certainly we have; but supposing" the buyer won't give that price and you cannot force him to buy, and in that case you would, have to keep your butter, and he .would get his requirements elsewhere., , Tooley Street has had twelve months to prepare for-.what was coming, and they have not been taken unawares. While the Control Board has been talking and waving the "big1 stick," the merchants have been quietly organising, and it is neither reasonable or likely they were going to use their best endeavours to xlear the market of stored butter before'the controlled make came on the market. 'On the contrary, it was right in their hands to have a big accumulation of store stuff; in fact, it is no exag-geration-to say the board was trapped. During last session there was quite a strong movement to try and get control postponed for twelve months, but it did not get much of a hearing. The mouthpieces of the Control Board had been stumping the country, telling of the wonders control was .going to achieve, and apparently, had farmers worked up like what was done over the dried skim-milk business; and it now looks as though control will be as big a success as the dried milk disaster. The only difference is, control will be national, while the dried milk Was only over a few unfortunate districts. . ■. . ■ When our butter was fetching withm a few shillings of Danish, we were told we were not getting fairly treated; now the difference is 30s, and Grounds says we have nothing to complain about — verily a Job's comforter. Farmers', wage-earners, and general public, what are you going to do? Are you going to sit quiet and allow a muddling board to muddle away half of our national income? If you do, as sure as day follows night, disaster will overtake us. You all know the amount of unemployment in the country last winter, when we got for the season Is 6d per lb.; now, what will happen next winter, if we only get a little over Is per lb for this season's, make? ■ . , In conclusion, I challenge anyone to prove that what I have stated is not a correct outline of the position.—-I am, etc. •.. -. E. P.. GRIFFEN, Kainui, Taupiri.