PRODUCE COMMANDEER

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 October 1939, Page 4

PRODUCE COMMANDEER

FARMERS FEAR PERMANENCY. [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, October 16. While admitting and accepting the necessity for the war-time commandeer of produce, particularly wool, and expressing no dissatisfaction with the price agreed upon between the Dominion and British Governments, a representative meeting of farmers from all parts of Otago today showed keen resentment of the possibility of such a commandeer becoming permanent at the conclusion of hostilities. The action of the Minister for Finance (Mr Nash) in evading the direct question of a member of the House concerning the probable duration of Government control of the pastoral industries has led to a definite fear that the Government’s intention is complete socialisation of primary production. It was this feeling that gave rise to to-day’s protests. The actual question of wool prices was not the subject of objection, one speaker declaring, with apparently general approval, that farmers would be more than satisfied to get their costs back, while those who could afford it would not mind “going back a bit.” The following resolution was carried unanimously, after some strong comments on what was regarded to be the Government’s intention : — “While farmers in Otago are prepared to do their full share to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion, they are determined to resist to the utmost any effort made for the socialisation of their industry, and in this respect they demand an assurance that the Government’s handling of wool and meat, rendered necessary as a result of the war, will be confined strictly to the period of hostilities, or to a brief period thereafter. In other words, we demand that the ordinary channels of trade be kept intact, so that the existing system of marketing may be reverted to immediately after the war.”

A further resolution dealing with producers’ representatives on marketing organisations was carried as follows: —

“This meeting demands that, auththorised representatives of primary producing bodies be consulted and be actively associated with the overseas marketing arrangements for our produce, and' that they be given representation on the central organisation set up by the Government to control exports.”