Welcomes Dairy Plan

Northern Advocate, 19 April 1947, Page 8

Welcomes Dairy Plan

(Special.) AUCKLAND, This Day. The Government's plan to establish a dairy commission to assume responsibility for the marketing of dairy produce and to fix the guaranteed price was favourably commented on yesterday by the secretary-manager of the Te Awamutu Dairy Company, l.td., and a member of the Dairy Industry Council (Mr A. J. Sinclair). “The Government recognises that it cannot successfully control a primary industry without the goodwill and loyal cooperation of the producers,” he said.

“The success of this plan will depend largely on the personnel of the Dairy Industry Commission, but past experience has shown that the Government and the industry’s nominees can work together harjnoniously and reach unanimous conclusions, even on vital issues such as the determination of a fair and equitable price to be paid to the dairy farmer,” continued Mr Sinclair. “The removal of the industry • from party politics, and the- restoration of its right to market its produce overseas and on the local market, with complete control of the Dairy Industry Account and also its Stabilisation Account, will be welcomed by dairy farmers as a genuine and wholehearted gesture by the Government to end the present friction and unrest in the industry. ANOMALIES WILL DISAPPEAR “One of the commission's most difficult problems will be the fixing of a price for butterfat to equate the dairy farmer’s labour reward with wages paid in industries based on the 40-hour week. The dairy farmer has a case which cannot be ignored, but he will be satisfied that this issue will now be determined finally by an impartial tribunal. “This problem is sufficiently acute even while the industry is on the crest of the wave so far as overseas realisations are concerned, but it will become grave during a period of falling markets. “If the new plan is administered wisely and with a considerable degree of caution, especially in the initial stages, it may sclve every major problem confronting the dairy industry, but dairy farmers should not expect immediately spectacular results, although some anomalies will undoubtedly disappear very shortly.

“The Government will now find that its generous, if somewhat tardy, approach to a solution of the industry's problems will be welcomed by dairy farmers, who will cooperate wholeheartedly in this constructive effort to place dairying in New Zealand on a basis which will,enable the dairy farmer to have his grievances considered impartially and permit him to concentrate his whole efforts on increased production."