DAIRY CONTROL

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 14 April 1927, Page 5

DAIRY CONTROL

THE PREMIER’S ACTIVITY. REPLY FROM MR GROUNDS. FORBEARANCE TO A FAULT. (BY telegraph—press association.) WELLINGTON, April 13. The following statement, in reply to the Premier, the Hon. J. G. Coates, was' issued to-night by Mr W. Grounds, chairman of the Dairy Produce Board: “My ‘Exporter’ review, regarding which Mr Coates has made a statement, makes quite clear the reason' for which it was written.

“After my report to the board on tny return from London upon Mr •Paterson’s activities as Government representative on the London agency, the hoard unanimously asked the Government to remove him.. Nearly two months later the Minister replied, not onlj- refusing to do so, but stating that thev were satisfied with the' manner in 'which he had discharged his duties.

“It was then clearly my duty to justify the hoard’s request. My statements' were specific and precise, and still remain unimpeachably accurate. Those records of actions and opinions ex messed necessitate naming the personify engaged. AH men must he judged by their actions and expressed thoughts, but in personalities in the vulgar sense (which unfortunately is the usual, one) I am not interested and. certainly shall not participate. “T romplctelv repudiate these suggestions that injustice has been done anyone by my statements. The industry and the count’'y have suffered a deeper injustice than can yet be comnutedi by the actions I have reported. 'Mr Coates takes one paragraph from mv statement which, he says, is wholly inaccurate, and denies accepting Mr Paterson’s guidance. I did not overload my points with evidence, thinking the barest- outlines sufficient for what I had in view. I still think that adequate proof was provided, but let me now go further on the point challenged.

“If Mr Paterson’s guidance was not accepted, how came it that ,at the end of Mr Paterson’s well-known cable to the board, dispatched on October 23, Mr Coates caused to be inserted the words: ‘The above message is sent with the cognisance' of the Prime Minister, who requests yon to hand a copy immediately to the act-ing-Prime Minister.’ “He may remember that I asked him shortly afterwards if cognisance under such circumstances did not indicate approval. This cablegram was disontohed when Mr Coates had been in London just one week, during which he was naturally preoccupied with the Imperial Conference, which had commenced its sitting. He received the first trade deputation on the morning of October 23, and on that afternoon ilr Paterson dispatched his cablegram-.

“Up to that point, Mr Coates had not seen either Messrs Motion. Wright or myself. The facts are ‘chiefs that winna ding.’ Did these not justify the conclusion stated in my review that, having accepted Mr Paterson’s guidance without any proper investigation, it was readily foreseen that he could not jettison, his guide? _ \ “The mention by Mr Coates of unity among the producers is painfully belated. Did no earlier opportunity present itself for an appeal for unity on a broader basis, free from any suspicion of self-protection ? Did I not ■urge the Prime Minister to speak for the country when the editor of a defunct newspaper sent a misleading cablegram to the London ‘Daily Mail,’ calculated seriously to prejudice national interests? Did an earnest- desire for the board’s success dictate no reply to my urgent representations ? “Forbearance has been displayed to a. fault in an endeavour to attain, unity until the essentials in successful marketing revealed' themselves to all. This forbearance sometimes counselled silence when truth might have urged speech. Sileire, even for unity, is not necessarily golden. It may be cowardly. Unity requires certain antecedent conditions. Certain elements will not toix. When these have been carefully analysed and segregated, the industry •will resume its progressive development.”

ALTON COMPANY RESOLUTION. “That this company has absolute confidence in the Dairy Produce Board’s policy, as originally outlined bv the lioard’s chairman, and dissociates itself entirely from the attitude taken by the Taranaki members'.” was the text of a resolution ■passed at a meeting of dlrectors of the Alton Dairv Comnanv on Tuesday.