ON SOUND LINES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 22, 26 July 1927, Page 8

ON SOUND LINES

Sound business sense is conspicuous in tho admission -lade by tho New Zealand Moat Board that "the Homeland's food import trade is vital to this Dominion's well-being." In its fifth annual report, published to-day, the Board gives a full account of its stewardship, and, on the whole, producers have reason to be gratified with the results. Unlike tho body entrusted with practical!}' the whole of the dairy produce export of the Dominion, tho Meat Board did not indulge in fanciful experiments in price-fixing. It took tho market as it found it, and supplied it with just such quantities of produco as, in its judgment, that market could absorb. Glut and famine were alike avoided. But that is not to say that prices received wore all the producer's fancy painted them at tho beginning of the season. The Meat Board, however, recognises the difficult obstacles it has to overcome, especially the severe competition of cheap but generally good-quality chilled South American beef. It is endeavouring to meet that, competition by producing in mutton and lamb a highgrade article; in unremitting attention to effecting economies in freezing, handling, shipping, and storage rates; in oncouraging by every legitimate means the improvement of pastures and stock and reduction of costs of producing. The Board's endeavours to popularise New Zealand meat in Great Britain and other countries have already borne fruit in increased interest and demand. Its finances must be regarded as satisfactory, too, for iv cash and investments it has over & 60,000, and its expenditure on publicity, prize-money for shows, and for some other purposes appears to have been moderate. Producers themselves, however, show what seems to be an astonishing lack of interest in the Board's efforts, judging

by the 1926 elections. Of 2439 voting papers issued only 776 were received, or a poll of 31.81 per cent. Perhaps producers are so well satisfied with the Board's conduct of their business that they feel no need to worry, even about recording their votes. This lack of interest may be read as approval of the Board's administration, but sustained efficiency is not attained that way. Sooner or later, apathy of electors induces slackness in the elected. The present Board, however, seems in no danger of slacking. But after all any Board is human, and meat producers cannot be sure of having their interests so zealously watched as they appear to have been, according to the fifth annual report of the Meat Producers Board.