THE FARM

Northern Advocate, 22 July 1933, Page 14

THE FARM

&&e Quota. . if - r T 'Hm*' - ' is demanding a. , quota on imported food stuffs and Now Zealand is declaring that it cannot accept The curse of New Zealand and of dairying’ industry in particular, is »t quantity is the national object oastead of quality.. Had we a Muss'd* IWi, or some*outstanding statesman,:a rßritish quota could be-nmade a bless-. in Every dairy S&tle, for instajliee,fgreycing spld.in Ipnblic saleyards which are unprofitsftfele animals to any man and disease asjp,-. • ■ into the bargain, while many ?|J|pusanfls of cows ate being milked , i&Mch are not only unprofitable to the (no matter what the price •i>ly butter-fat), but are a menace to is where a states- - tty, *’ .X. ■ *tnan would realise-the opportunity of ■. 'MVi* <r>r» <>, x x -.“ y t ■ : ;|syolu|tbi#iffg dairy farming. $He qft embargo.on the sale of, e«p bul n tested' dairy cows, and would •Iqteo every man to have his herd tpSted and at the end of the season ,to ma every unprofitable cpw jo the j works. Such a drastic policy <weuld be really no hardship. In many Otises it would be a real advantage, as m good cqjvs remaining would haved opportunity of. being ..better fed m managed. ’ ofily., this but the tmer would have more time to give keeping his shed and milking equip- , in better order and be able to wSiver a higher quality or cleaner ?s|oduc|factory. Some eompenilpion •be allowed Jn eases of *«|tl Kad.. r ."i63e' ■PR*# such drastic blit’ desirable

fflethoxl'of temporarily restricting out'* am order" for (presently XP‘dKt ieiails 'what ‘ a chance does not a ’qdbtabpreseht" of raising the standard of our export produce. While / the industry (with 'its .disunited leaderiPrged to adopt the painfully glow educative process of X V*^ r T n T f T £*•****«»ww^r-****- - A**-;**/«•* •*>■/ Improving the. Lquallty... of the raw Immaterial a bold* "national order to companies io to accept |iothing but superfine milk or creani sor products for oversea markets jfould at . once .restrict the Amount of exportable produce to. a tsyel Jt&at wpuld -meet:. the quota; But he grading would-have vto be done by government officials. Under such a Jppliey proper encouragement would be jfco,the farmers who .want to con- ■ jdnety’the * business. . and those drag on the ’inclustry .would into line or driven out flof dairy-farmiiTg. The quota could be anade a most' beneficient-thing for the if ithwere received in the fright flight'.' -and 'if we had - strong tenbrrgh leadership" to realise that the 'quota would y present a golden opportunity to enormously . rah*--th«^«tandard-of-dairying in this country and put it imam unassailable position for all time.^P.-r What Others are Doing. . Our rivals, forced so;,:meet the; British quota, are meeting;the position by tssmr- ■ fc'SX’

eliminating their lower producing aniinals., For instance, Denmark is killdhg cows at the rate of 4000 a week, and it is estimated that in the first four months of this year 50,000 had been slaughtered. And there are not as many cull cows in Denmark as there are in New Zealand. As. to raising, by some compulsory measure, directly or indirectly, the standard of milk production, the Finns set an excellent example. Realising Hie great importance of only exporting the highest elass produce they have a. law in force which prohibits a farmer supplying a factory making butter for export until lie has had three years' experience in the production and handling of milk, and is then considered capable of supplying his factory with high-class raw material. Short-sighted Directorates. It is difficult to understand the narrow attitude of certain directorates of small dairy companies who are refusing to join in a national policy of consignment of butter and.cheese outputs and still want the right to follow the dangerous speculative ipethod. Right from the initiation of the industry its progress has been hampered by dairy companies continually changing agents or consigning one year and selling the The obvious result of this vacillating policy has been that the butter or cheese was always - going into new channels, the leading dairy produce firms of Britain, with a few striking exceptions, not being given » an opportunity to establish .a connec- ; for °uf prodnee. In the ease of butter the failure of so many New Zealand dairy companies to adopt a i set tied policy greatly stimulated the blending business. And the very men responsible for this have, been the first to complain that New Zealand butter loses its identity when it reaches the British markets. It is now generally recognised that the only way of ensuring that the British - consumer can get Aew Zealand butter when he asks for, it (and not a blended inferior substitute) is by selling onr butter in -special cartons, hut how is the promising carton trade to be developed if the butter is to bo sold instead qf being consistency consigned to firms who will by agreement market it in cartons?

The Home Opinion. Speaking recently in the House of .Commons Major Elliot, British Minister for Agriculture, stated the Home Government attitude in regard to quotas very definitely. He was referring to the demand of the Council of Agriculture for England, which was insisting on quotas as well as tariffs. When he spoke as follows: “In addition it was stated in the ■document that if that was not enough the right was reserved to , iinposo a further, cut,, only with the . proviso that if that .were done all the overseas •suppliers, Dominions and Argentine, would have to co-oporate. That was a fair and reasonable provision and one to which no one could take any exception either in Great Britain or overseas, because all knew that if the

market fell to a slate at which there was no remuneration in it for tho home producer then the Ottawa declaration of home producer first, Dominion producer second, foreign producer third, came into play, and it was necessary for everyone to hold off the market so that the man at home, who after all discovered these islands, should have the first chance of supplying their needs. . . But the task before them was the renaissance of the countryside. Whether they could achieve that in this country —a. task that had been of such weight that'it had not been achieved in any other country—he could not say, but he was certain they were on the right lines—the organisation of producers at home, the regulation of imports from abroad. These wore the two cardinal points of the policy."