WHEAT POOL ACTIVITIES

Evening Star, Issue 20428, 8 March 1930, Page 22

WHEAT POOL ACTIVITIES

CONFIDENCE IN DIRECTORS [Per United Press Association.] TIMARU, March 7. After a discussion lasting almost two hours and a-half, during which the activities of the wheat pool were fully investigated, a gathering of approximately 150 South Canterbury members of the Wheatgrowcrs’ Association this afternoon unanimously carried a resolution expressing confidence in the directors and manager of the pool. The meeting, which was presided over by Mr W. A. Orbell, was attended by Messrs W. \\ r . Mulholland (chairman of directors of the pool), R. M'Pherson (manager), A. W. Barnett and P. R. Talbot (directors), and ten members of the South Canterbury Electoral Committee. The meeting, which was called by a few dissatisfied members, was for the purpose of ascertaining the exact position of last year’s final payments by the pool before the growers placed the present season’s crop in the hands of the pool, it was stated that one of the great causes of the unrest was that free wheat had been selling at higher prices than pool wheat. The free growers had received money on delivery, whereas the pool members did not know what prices they would ultimately receive. The pool members had also to pay an overdraft on the remainder of the money held by the pool, which placed them in an unfair position with the free grower. The dissatisfied members maintained that the only growers who had benefited by the pool were the free men.

A large number of questions was put to the directors and the manager, who replied at considerable length. They maintained that the complaints boiled down to two things: first, that the free grower had been able to rido on the backs of the pool members, and, secondly, that the 1929 pool had not been cleaned up. The operations of tho pool were gone into in detail, and it was shown that the pool had chosen between two courses. The first was to have brought the price down to export parity and to have exported the surplus, and the second was to have put tho wheat m store, thus keeping it out of trade channels, thereby holding tho price steady. Rightly or wrongly, the directors chose the latter course.

Mr Mulholland urged on members the need for loyalty if the organisation was to succeed. But for the pool, members last year would have had to accept whatever price was offering. The following amendment was moved to a motion of confidence, but was lost by an overwhelming majority:—“That it is the opinion of this meeting that the objects of the pool are being defeated by the fact that a large proportion of growers have abstained from joining tho pool, and are reaping the benefits of the pool at the expense of the growers who have joined. That it is inequitable that this should continue, and that in view of tho large number of * free ’ growers, whose number may be considerably increased- by farmers turning from wool to grain, the continuance of I the pool will -give an unfair advantage to the growers who have not joined as against those who have; that the only remedy is to wind up tho New Zealand Wheatgrowers’ Cooperative Association, Ltd.; that this meeting appoint a committee to act with the committees that may be appointed in other parts of the wheatgrowing area in placing this < view before the directors of tho association.”