CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 29 May 1922, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

—~—♦ /•DAIRY POOL. (To the Editor.) Sir,—l would like to ask dairy farmers and the public generally to "beware ot this scatter-brained scheme and to take go.d care that it is not carried into effect, whether with compulsion on the producers legislatively enforced ovA, ot- I desire to seriously warn the public that in it lies a great menace not only to the welfare of the dairy farmers, but also to the welfare of the whole community and to the finance of ■ the country. And I would warn our legislators that to allow it, either with or without legislative compulsion, will be taking an immense risk of ruining hundreds and hundreds of dairy farmers, including most of the returned soldier dairy farmers, and of giving the dairying industry of this country a very serious setback, to say nothing ot the effect such will have on the country's finance. Here I will say that no one suggests that there is not room tor improvement in connection with our dairying industry and the disposal of the produce, but the reforms are mostly needed at this' end-—in our supply, in the factories, and, above all in the cost of freight, which alone in the case of cheese to-day amounts to over one-sixth of the net value. Our dairy produce, which of late has formed a very great part of our total exports and the proceeds of which has meant our financial salvation durincr the recent slump in values of wool and meat, has been and is being handled by a large number of old-established reputable firms in the United Kingdom, whose businesses have been grad- I ua-lly built up and who have the advan- j tages at their backs of Jife-long busi- ' ness experience in the produce trade, thoroughly established reputations and financial backing, well organised sources of information, and each its clientele, which assures the practically immediate disposal, at ma/ket values, ol all our produce at one! on arrival Hitherto this has unfailingly taken place, and y>nsequently financing in connection with our\shipments has been easy and without a hitch. The unfailing monthly cheque has been,one of the chief sets off against the arduous life of the dairy farmer, and has been the source of great soundness and stability of trade,- etc., in the towns of the dairying districts. It has to be remembered that there are a large number of these firms and that New Zealand produce forms a portion, in some eases a very small portion, of their ! business, and consequently that *no matter what quantity of our produce I arrives it being, cutup among so many ' the congestion and delay that would ' inevitably occur from time to time if"l going through one or only a few chan- | nels is non-existent and the financialpart is without a hitch. In place of this tried and proved reliable system, under which competition is in unhampered and full operation, it is" proposed under the pool scheme to, at; one fell swoop, place the whole of oui- Dominion's dairy produce untler, the sole unfettered and unaided control of the Pool Board. A board whieh,~with its-, organisation must, Whether it has \ within it commercial men or not, as an / organisation, be absolutely raw and inexperienced, will-have straight off -to take over the entire,Tcontrol of ship- ' ping, handling, sate -and'financing of, our immense- expprts 70f dairy produce, I which is now dealt-with; byscores of l> experienced firms. *n Congestion, confusion, endless delays, and tens of thousands of pounds worth of produce lying in store being eaten up with charges and shrinkage, instead of sales to meet drafts. This would be the inevitable result of one new, raw and inexperi- j enced organisation attempting to take ' over at one wild plunge the business I now done by scores of experienced ! firms. The whole thing is sheer reckless madness. Their statement that they are going to allow the: produce to go through the present channels after being shipped, financed and. priced by them is valueless, as Jt lacks * the slightest assurance,' or even warrant, to suppose that the present merchants will take it at the price fixed/ or, for the matter of that at any price, under direction of the Pool Board. True they might take it.„one week at the price suiting and perhaps the niarket bare and not take it the next or the next or the next, for they (the merchants) won't be under compulsion like the unfortunate producers! And so the whole thing perforce must break down, for the Pool Board would have no possible means of disposal, and watfoout assurance of disposal .no financial institution* would dream of accepting our drafts. If the scheme was one fto establish a house-in London or elsewhere to sell New Zealand dairy produce as New Zealand dairy produce, in competition with the existing houses, then the thing would rest on its merits, might grow into a valuable means of gradually improving the marketing of our produce. But the scheme as proposed is doomed to* disaster, and,if attempted the dairying industry &nd everything dependent upon it will suffer such a frost that will spell wholesale disaster. Very many dairy farmers' are now going to ipe wall, but there are hundreds and hundreds of others who, -with hard work and pluck, can and will pull tnrpugh under present conditions, but whose last chance would be gone if the scheme goes through, and. these hundreds and hundreds would be the hopelessly ruined victims of the promoters of this mad scheme and of the legislators that countenanced it—l am, etc, *'.'.. r, , « , E- MAXWELL. Opunake, 26/5/22. '