POOLS AND SHIPPING SCHEMES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 233, 14 September 1922, Page 5

POOLS AND SHIPPING SCHEMES.

COMPULSION DISCUSSED BY FARMERS. OPINION DIVIDED. . Wellington, Sept. 12. Marketing and shipping schemas for farmers in connection wi£h the :compulsory meat pool were discussed at the quarterly meeting of the executive of the Dominion Farmers’ Union today. Mr. G. Anderson (Marlborough) urged strongly the case of the compulsory meat pool man. They wanted to help the farmer with jjtore stock, and unless they got the* requisite assurance. the Meat Control Board and the compulsory meat pool would be as dead as Julius Caesar. The farmer should have the measure of control Which was previously enjoyed by trusts. • Mr. Anderson urged the setting up of a board for the marketing of wool at minim im prices for different grades. They wanted at least fifty ships to trade between New Zealand and Great Britain. Mr. Atwood, president of the Fruitgrowers’ Association, said the principle of compulsory marketing of fruit had been endorsed by America. The cooperation of all producers was necessary to ensure _ Mr. A. E. Harding said"the board would bring about compulsory control as soon as possible. Mr. Hugh Morrison said proper marketing conditions must be made with Britain before compulsion could be adopted Mr. w. J. Poison (president) advocated more speed on the part of the board in the matter of compulsion. The motion was defeated on a show of hands by 8 to 7. A TARANAKI AUTHORITY’S VIEWS CENTRALISATION NEEDS STRONG MANAGER Writing under date September 7th, the Stratford correspondent to the Taranaki ‘‘Herald” says that dairy produce agents were much in evidence m the town yesterday and to-day, being assembled for the purpose of persuading the directorates of our neighbouring companies of Ngaere and Low. farth that this, that", or the other rm handled produce on consignment just a little better than competitors. Offers to purchase the coming season’s output were conspicuous by their absence, the explanation being that those provision dealers who used to be forward buyers have been hit so hard these last two years as to be practically down and out. This touring of the country every spjing by some dozen or two of representatives of produce merchants, and the assembling of hundreds of boards of directors to listen to their pleadings for business, is on the face of it one of those Wasteful excrescences that cause the present system of marketing to be condemned by almost everyone connected with the industry. Yet there is something to be said in its favour, mainly because of its educational value It is the dairy farmers’ one opportunity for nibbing shoulders with men who are in touch with the consumers’ end of the business. The director gets to know something of the vast organisation that enables the operative in a Lancashire cotton mill to spread butter made in Taranaki upon bread baked from flour from Winnipeg. He becomes familiar with the sound, at any rate, of the technicology of commerce, and. if he has sense, realises that transport, distribution, and exchange are matters as vital to human existence as production. In a way, the whole business of marketing can doubtless be done more cheaply and efficiently by centralisation, just as it is said that the most efficient government is a benevolent autocracy, but big men ar© required to run the big organisations, and the big machines do not seem to produce a breed of big men. T suppose the German army of 1914 was the biggest and most perfect of human machines. It had not, however. a big enough man to use it to advantage.