CONTROL BOARD

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 237, 4 September 1928, Page 2

CONTROL BOARD

SOME SHARP CRITICISM. Per Press Association. PAHIATUA, Sept. 4. There was some sharp criticism a the annual meeting yesterday of the Rexdale Co-operative Dany C . cerning the Dairy Contiol Boaid. In reply to question by Mi • • ire Mr J 5 J G. Brechin agreed Efe AS Board had been capLred by thecommemg interests! of the Domimon. Their effo s ij&sW svssfo as* sa rsrfM trying to ° n fa m ol | O »»trolie<l it. aic'o int lrithn ... mtder.ble It was T striking fact that <rvea the of a dairy company, but was no e ceived an offer from the National Dany Association of New Zealand and the South Island Dairy Association to continue to carry out the shipping of dairy produce from all ports but Wellington the cost to be £2OOO per annum The secretary of the board hadj*®? quested to prepare an estimate ofl th cost if the board carried out this work itself. His estimate was LdloU pel annum. A committee of the hoard was Tup to report, the committee consisting of the chairman, a commercial representative and one other membe who had previously been anti-control. Notwithstanding the report- of the committee, as was to he exnectecl from its constitution, the members of the board voted in equal numbers for and against the report that the board should take over the work at a higher cost. The voting was as follows, said Mr Brechin, and he advised those interested in the operations of the board to examine the names very carefully a— For the work to he done at £4UUU, Messrs Grounds, Ferguson, Winks, Hine Reynolds and Corrigan; for the expenditure of over £3OOO for the same work, Messrs lorns, Chapman, Hunt, Timpany, Lee and Fulton. The voting was therefore equal and it was necessary for the chairman to use his casting vote. Mr lorns did this, and in doing so departed from all recognised precedent by voting against the existing system, which also was the least costly for the industry. If it could have been shown that the work accomplished by the associations was not up to the mark, then the chairman of the board might reasonably have cast his vote as he did, but in view of the fact that lie lmd already made laudatory remarks, which the board had endorsed, upon the fine work accomplished by the associations for the board, he surely was not studying the dairy producers when he threw away over £IOOO of their money by using his casting vote in the manner in which he did. Mr Brechin stressed the point that it was significant that the Exporter, which gives the dairy farmers of the Dominion official news of the doings of the board, did not mention the division on this matter of shipping, nor had the division list yet been published. The meeting unanimously resolved “tliat in the opinion of this meeting the matter of the continuation of the Daily Produce Control Board should be seriously considered by the dairy industry as a whole with the view to (1J the elimination of the Act; (2) drastic revision of its personnel with the view to tho members of the board being wholly representative of dairy farmers only.”