DANGER OF CONTROL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 29 October 1926, Page 5

DANGER OF CONTROL

THE LESSON OF THE DAIRY INDUSTRY WHY EXPERIMENT WITH FRUIT? A correspondent under the nom-de-plume of "Pip," writes: — "At last we know' our fate!- • Ihe poor old fruitgrower, after many year's search for a new earth anil a new heaven in the way of organisation is to be brought, under the iron heel of compulsory "control. ILis lawfully owned property is to be taken from him wiliy-nuly, and disposed of by th e powers that tie, whensoever, wheresoever, and through whatsoever broker they choose to appoint. A bureaucracy in Wellington (mainly Government- nominees and officials) and a dictator in London will crack the whip, and woe betide Ibe dog that barks! The time* will come, and at no distant date, when the victims will wake up and want to know how came it that this Bolshevik iniquity was put over them in a land flying the Union Jack. “The Act got on to the Statute Book by misrepresentation, it was stated by some of the promoters that there need be no fear of the compulsory powers being enforced, and on that understanding many votes were won. "Already this control fetish has* wrecked ihe various fruitgrowers' organisations in the province,’particularly ihe Provincial Council, which before tin- advent of control did such excellent work for Nelson growers. Worse still, the seed of dissension has been sown. In a time of stress like the present, when growers should be united, the camp is divided into two factions—the Coinpulsionists and the “Antis."

"In view of the disaster which has overtaken the dairy farmers, one had aright to expect the Fruit Control Board to adopt a policy of extreme caution; and at least to wait and see if it is 'possible for the Dairy Controllers to bring their ship out of the troubled waters it. is in.

"But perhaps the Fruit Control Board are in blissful ignorance of the fact that- many dairy farmers have been ruined; that all have been ft aril hit; that the finance of the country has....been jeopardised, thanks to what the late Prime Minister referred to as a ‘new experiment.’ It' Colonel Gray will look up the current issue of the ‘New Zea.laiid Dairyman' he will find these facts reported : On 21st- August New Zealand and Danish prices stood both at 176,- per cwt. Since this date New Zealand dropped to 146/(nr 30/- per cwt), while Danish actually rose to 184/- (!) showing a difference of 38/- per cwt. in favour of Danish butter. During ; the last four weeks New Zealand butter on the London market shows a drop of 10/- per cwt ; Danish butter during the same period declined only by 2/-. Argentine did not decline at all, but stands at the same figure as on 18th September, and at 150/to 156; —actually selling 4/above New Zealand—a thing

never heard of in the past,” “The plain fact is that the Dairy Control Board did with butter wind the l’rtfit Control Board now propose to do with apples—butted into that very lelicale and extremely sensitive piece of mechanism—The Market—with the result that the operators of that machine were antagonised and retaliated by boycotting New Zealand butter anil procuring their supplies elsewhere. \Vhat else could have been expected?" “After years of hard work and welldirected enterprise. New Zealand butler achieved a position on the open market, second to none in the world. Unfortunately, the industry lias got into the hands of experimentalists.juul so far from being raised to a higher level it has been ruthlessly cast down to the level of its meanest competitor. No wonder a wave of protest and indignation has 'swept over the country, and that- the abolition of the Control Board is demanded. Perhaps it is fortunate that Mr Coates happens to he in London at the present time? if will he strange indeed if ‘something" doesn’t happen very soon as a resultof his investigations. “Now, in view of the utter collapse of the vicious principle of 'compulsory control it does seem a positivelv amazing fact- that the Don Quixotes'of the Fruit Control Board have decided also to have a tilt- at ‘The Market.’ "

"Invested as they are with full power to commandeer our export fruit, 'to mortgage and do what they jolly well please with it, it should not bV forgotten that thy members of the Board incur no liability, no matter what sort of a mess they make of the job. -Lb •* "Grip this: New Zealand apples-to-day top the Home market by a comfortable margin. Colonel Gray confirms this. Wiial then is there to gain by the proposed experiment? Are we likely to reach a still higher level on the market ’! I doubt if even the most optimistic members of the Board would suggest that "On the other hand it makes one shudder k> think what wo shall lose i! the experiment fails, as fail it must-. Many of us have put tlip best years of our lives, and our little all into the game. We have toiled and moiled, nave guttered hardships while others prospered, hut like the optimists wp are we have been buoyed up with the hope which, like the glimmering tap'er's light, adorns and cheers tile wav. There has been the comfort of the solid fact that wo wore producing something for which there is a world’s demand; that sooner or later things would right themselves; and at last we have the satisfaction of knowing that by slow degrees, by moiv and more our product has reached the highest position on the worlds market. Can we afford to experiment? Is il prudent, with nothing 1,1 ni'in, to relinquish the substance-for tile shadow ?

"I have been a fruitgrower for a good many years, and have been bitten by the numerous lancy schemes launched tor our salvation, but this ‘extra fancy’ scheme is, to nrv mind, the saddest and maddest of them all.”