DAIRY BOARD

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 124, 30 May 1927, Page 9

DAIRY BOARD

FAILURE OF CONTROL

A DIFFICULT PROBLEM

LONDON AGENTS RETURNING

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 23rd April.

Mr. W. A. lorns and Mr. W. C. Motion sail for New Zealand by the Corinthic to-day. It will be vather a sad homecoming for the two London agents o£ the Dairy Produce Board, for they will have to tell the plain tale of the failure of control. They will have to suppress firmly any suggestions that the scheme has failed owing, to any other cause but economic ones, and they will have to crush the vain hope that price-fixing will ever be possible again in this country. There are several difficult problems the board will have to solve, but there is one particularly unpleasant one. A premium seems to have been promised to those factories which would turn out cheese of finest quality. They were to have 3s 4d a crate more than those who merely produced first-grade cheese. When prices were fixed the finest was 2s per cwt more thau first-grade. Buyers were content with first-grade, and a very small proportion o£ the finest was disposed of. Price-fixing was abandoned, and prices generally came down, with the result that finest is now being sold at considerably less than what was paid for first-grade under control. The same thing applies to butter. The board have been able to get less for finest I than they have for first-grade, and the question arises: Are the producers of firstgrade to have a portion, of their "profits deducted in order that the board may redeem their promise to the producers of ! finest equality; or are the latter to be penalised for having gone' to the trouble and expense of turning out a superior product? Doubtless, the producers will have something to say concerning this matter, and the board will have a really tough problem to solve, as they have no reserve fund to draw upon. ■ | CONTROL OF QUANTITIES^ It Has. been stated that the wholesalers are averse to the control of quantities and are likely to boycott New Zealand butter in the same way as they did when the prices were controlled. It is maintained that there is not much difference between the control of prices and the control of quantities. It comes to the same thing in the end. However this may be, the tact remains that the 90,000' cases of butter have been disposed of each week up to Easter. During Easter Week the allocations were disposed of by the Wednesday. This week perhaps the full quantity will not be got rid of, but that will be largely owing to the holidays'. Next | week it will be possible to tell if thej-e j is any passive resistance. The opinion, I however, is held by. the board, and by some of the allottees that the board ought to be in their stride again by the end of; June, and able to deal with the arrivals of new; stock. Although there are those .who,, disagree with the policy of limiting the quantities,' it has to be recognised that if all the accumulations had been thrown on the market there would have .been a serious slump. Possibly prices would have picked up again as soon as the element of uncertainty as to quantities entered, in, but that is problematical. In, the meantime' the board are recognising that under the present system of definite allotments the allottees are not fighting for higher prices. It would seem that in the end control of any kind at this end will have to !be abandoned if the resiliency of the ■market is to be restored.! Control of shpiments so as to yield a uniform supply at this end is another matter. • ■'■,;..' -'.■■■' ■■.■ . .■ • ■ • The importers are now beginning to ask: What is the board going to do next season? The socftiev they know the better. It was stated when the 2% per cent, commission was reduced to 2 per cent, that the importers would gain their compensation because they would not have to maintain 'their organisations in New Zealand, is they considered that the board's methods would collapse they did not do away with their organisations in the Dominion. Naturally, they are anxious to knowwhat is to happen so that they may make their arrangements for the future. THE HUMAN ELEMENT. Reverting again to the general idea of control, the opinions of a prominent importer may well be .quoted :— "No doubt," he said, "the whole scheme was Vrell thought out, but the promoters of it failed to take into account human nature. You cannot scrap in a moment the customs of a trade which have been built up, not over five or ten years, but over 1 centuries. You cannot scrap these customs without creating a tremendous amount of feeling. Then they left out of their considerations the most important aspect of the question—the financial aspect. There are not half-a-dozen people to consider. There are thousands of people who resent having a new system rivetted upon them. If such a revolutionary measure is to be a success, the people themselves have to be of the same mind. Only a strong Government with military force behind it can introduce theqo schemesin times of emergency. Human nature resents them, and there is a natural retaliation. Again, there is the human element which has been ignored. The man who was chosen to conduct this great organisation was not in touch with the traders. He was good at issuing mandates and giving instructions. But that is not the way to work ft commercial undertaking. .Tact, human. touch, and human sympathy are necessary." :'