“TOO MUCH DICTATION”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 23 April 1934, Page 4

“TOO MUCH DICTATION”

SUGGESTIONS FROM WAIKATO (By Telegraph—Press Association)' HAMILTON, 21st April. ' “There has been far too much dictation to Britain on the part of the dairy industry and its administrators in New Zealand,.” stated Mr E. Runnerstrum, governing director of tlie Waikato Valfey Dairy Company, Frankton, in commenting on the. dairy position to-day. Some of tlie measures he proposed for the revival of the industry were the revaluation of all farm property, with safeguards to avoid speculation, the refund on freights, the prohibition of the manufacture of all seconr-grade ancl whey butter, and the derating of farm lands. Mr liunnerstrum s*id it was time the producers of the finest butter were no longer penalised by a small proportion of those who made whey butter. “If we put our house in order by slaughtering all unsound cows and relinquishing the present stubborn attitude concerning tariffs, we would create an enormous good will in Britain, and good will is the foundation of business,” be added. The new vacuum process was bound to score in the future because the frozen article , has never been the same as fresh; and never would.be. He opposed the alteration in the exchange rate unless similar , action was taken by Australia, otherwise New Zealand would be undercut on the dairy produce market. He had always opposed quotas, but the country had to face facts, ancl the biggest fact was that New Zealand was not. in',a position to dictate. Mr lluiihorstrum.' *'considered the Commission the best step the Government could have taken.

GOVERNMENT ACTION COMMENT BY AIR GROUNDS WELLINGTON, This Day. “The Prime Minister’s statement at last indicates some advance. The Government, has acknowledged its responsibility. How much the procrastination has cost the .country can never bo measured,”, said Air W. Grounds, a member of tlie Dairy Board. “For more ill a it, a year we have been urging that a national crisis was upon us, and that any suggestion of restriction of imports to Britain would cut across the whole fabric of our economic life and would necessitate a complete review of New Zealand’s settled national policy of the last fifty years, Must we always be too late’;” Air Grounds continued. “The prospect of a royal commission with its interminable delays will not bring consolation to the thousands ot dairy farmers ancl dependents who are deliberately hard pressed for mere sustenance, and who in many cases see the result of a lifetime of effort supping away from them. My view is that assistance is needed now, as many will be in desperate straits this coming winter.