SERIOUS VIEW

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20507, 18 March 1941, Page 4

SERIOUS VIEW

MEAT EXPORT POSITION MR. POLSON’S VIEWS NEXT YEAR’S PRODUCTION Concern at the meat situation and the delay of the Government in announcing the policy it is intended to adopt during the coming production season is expressed by Mr. W. J. Poison, M.P. for Stratford, in a letter he sent on March 7 to the Ministei' of Marketing and Agriculture, the Hon. J. G. Barclay. Mr. Poison said the meat question ranked next in national importance to the war and should be considered from the national angle. No reply to his letter had been received by Mr. Poison on Tuesday night. He said his object in handing the letter to the press was to let the farmers know the facts. “I am very perturbed at the meat situation, and at the delay which has occurred at the beginning of the producing season in announcing' the policy which the Government intends to pursue during the coming year, that is to say, the year which begins on October 1 next,” Mr. Poison’s letter stated. Testing Time For Policy * “I have been informed that the Meat Board does not consider further additional storage desirable, and I realise that in a multitude of varying counsel the Government has the difficult task of deciding what should be done. But I would point out that to adopt the Australian plan now would be disastrous to the producers and to production, and that having encouraged increases in production—increases which were decided upon as part of Government policy and not at the request of the Imperial Government —and having used the Marketing Act and its amendments to purchase and control the produce of the farms, it would be a serious reversal to abandon that policy now that a testing time has arisen, and to throw the producers to the wolves. Further Storage Possible

“I am assured that further storage is possible and that equipment can be procured for it, that with the passing of the Lease and Lend Bill the shipping position is not entirely hopeless, and that at a later date it may even be possible to dispose of all the meat in store. I believe it is our duty to store all we can.

“In any case producers must be protected against bankruptcy in the national as well as their own interests, and they must be paid for what meat is placed in store after September 30 and compensated for what is taken from them and otherwise disposed of than by storage. I hope the Government will make an early decision, because already farmers have mated their flocks and are setting out on plans for next year’s production. The question ranks next in national importance to the, war and should be considered from the national angle.”