DAIRY PRODUCE POOL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 7 June 1923, Page 2

DAIRY PRODUCE POOL.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —As far as can .be gathered from the .information available, it is the intention ot: the Pool. Council that a contract of at least seven years' duration should be entered into with a shipping concern outside the companies at present trading to New Zealand, a condition of tne contract being that the whole of the produce, butter and cheese, be under compulsory control, so as to assure that none could be snipped by other channels, and further, that the whole of the produce should be go allotted as to provide for twenty fortnightly shipments of equal quantities, covering forty weeics out of the iifty-two. . The plea put forward for asking for legislative interference and enforcement of arbitrary control is that it is the only means by which, improvement can be attained and what, the council asserts, is essential to the welfare of the industry —tlie delivery on tho British market of our produce every week throughout the year and the prevention, by storing, of the delivery of unequal quantities. It will be obvious to all that the proposals of the Pool Council involve very serious considerations, and are such, if carried into effect, as may result in grave injury, not only to the dairying industry, but also to other sections of the ■community, and to the public generally . First, to take the proposal to enter into a contract to ship the whole of the dairy produce By an outside shipping concern —that is, outside the .supposed i shipping federation. This proposal involves a series of considerations affectiris; the whole community. Taking away the whole of the dairy produce from the lines that now handle it and all our outward and inward trade, means taking away the carrying of one class only of" our produce, but that is the most important, with a freight-earning j value of £1,300,000 per annum on this ! year's production—the cream of the exl>ort freight. How will this affect the carriage of other classes of our produce. i meat, etc? And here it is well to remark on the significance of the faci that the promoters now propose tc amend the Bill so as to free them ir this matter from any dependence on th( Meat Board. How will it affect the 1 imports? Can it be supposed that the | large number of ocean liners now trad j ing here and handling the whole of oui i exports and imports can continue tc ; equally serve us when the greater pan !of the most valuable, from a freigln ! point of view, is taken from them? \V< ! want a steadily-increasing service, ant i not a curtailed one, for our genera { needs. I Then, as to the "outside" line, fceiiif ]an outside line it will be dependen lon dairy produce only for outwa,r< freight, and no ' return freights. Th< inevitable outcome will be demands tr this shipping concern, backed by dair produce interests, on the Governmen f«r a heavy subsidy, with a drift late ( into a farmers'-cum-Govenmient .sliiu ping company. This would oif^r aver; clear explanation to an otherwise in explicable provision in the Bill fo building up a reserve fund by deduc tions from our milk cheques. There is another feature of this pre posai that, though it may not be ofc jfceted to by Wellington and Auckland nevertheless it will be very objection able to such ports as Dunedin, Bhifi and New Plymouth. The suggeste contract moans elimination of all sc called side-ports, and even of such port as last mentioned. Only three portsAuckland. Wellington and Lytteffonwill be dealt with; only one in th >South Island. T«ke Tarannki, which produces aoou one-fourth of the dairy produce, an which is an ideal dairying district rapidly increasing its output, and wit room for great expansion; it will pro vid« sufficient trade to command fo 't* port—New Plymouth—a frequen and direct service of ocean-going boats Ihe people of this province are provid ing large sums so that accommcdatioi for the largest boats may be available b»t if the Pool Council's proposals ar carried into effect the port will revetto, ene for coastal and the smaile I class or ocean boats

It is hardly conceivable that th« n.emuers of Parliament representiii«T s?:cn districts as Otago, Southland ai.d iaranaki, Dune-din, Bluff and New Plymouth ports—could think fo.r one moment of supporting a measure which by admission of speakers for the Dairy iool Council, will involve such results . it is not 111 the least difficult to / judge, should the pool .scheme he ] orought into effect, in what estimation anyone who in any way contributes to that end will be held. . So far only the features of the scheme in so tar as it proposes shipoing all the dairy produce by one line, and that J"ie an '"outside" line, and the attendant question of the diversion of trade I trom several important ports, has been oeaiu with but. that aspect is nothinto what will be the menace to the very iouudation.s cf the prosperity of the cihirying industry from the proposals for spreading the whole of the produce equn.ly over forty w-eeks of the year by providing for equal fortuighttv s'-iip-Kionts.—r am, etc., ' l

MAXWE-I.L, Opunake