DAIRY CONTROL BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19321, 7 May 1926, Page 15

DAIRY CONTROL BOARD.

THE METHOD OF ELECTION. ONE PRODUCER ONE VOTE. " ONLY SOUND PRINCIPLE. " [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] WANGANUT. Thur?dsiy. Further suggestions in connection with the method of electing the members of the Dairy Control Board are contained in the following letter which Mr. W. A. Veitch, M.P., has forwarded to the Prime Minister (1) All parties are agreed that the Dominion shall be divided into nine wards, six for the North Island and three for the South Island, and that each ward shall elect one producers' representative to the Dairy Control Board. The points to bo settled by Parliament are: (a) Whether the individual producers or the factory directors in each ward are to do the voting; and (b) whether the voting shall be on the basis of one producer one vote or oil a tonnage basis, according to the quantity of butter or cheese exported by each factory. (2) Many of the delegates to the dairy conference who voted in favour of the Control Board being elected by the factory directors, stated frankly that they were heartily in favour of the principle of each dairy producer having a vote, but for all practical purposes they thought it would be better to leave the election of the board in the hands of factory directors; in other words, by casting their vote in favour of factory directors electing the board, they disfranchised a largo number of their suppliers who want a vote. (3) After carefully analysing the whole position, I am satisfied that less than 30 per cent, of the dairy producers are'in favour of the Dairy Control Board being elected by factory directors. Likewise, I am just as certain that over 70 per cent, uf the dairy producers want the right of voting for their own representative on the Control Board. (4) The idea of grading the value of each producer's vote according to the amount of butter or cheese exported by his factory is such a grossly unfair departure from the democratic principle of one man one vote that it would only lead to further dissension throughout the dairying industry. The Dairy Control Board proposes to bring compulsion into force on August 1 and to seize and market the whole of the Dominion's output of butter and cheese, whether a producer wants it or not. In doing so the board is treading on dangerous ground legally and morally, and incidentally it raises a very fine point in constitutional law, but that is not the matter under discussion. The point I wish to bring out is that on a matter which so vitally concerns the welfare of the individual producer there is only one sound and democratic principle of electing the Control Board, and that is on the basis of one. producer one vote. (5) I havo already pointed out to you that the unfair tonnage basis of voting ar. the recent dairy conference in Wellington created very serious dissension among the delegates and failed to reflect the views of the dairy producers. Similarly, a system of electing the Dairy Control Board on a tonnage basis would have precisely the same result. The Dairy Control Act was brought into operation on the basis of one producer one vole and the same principle still holds.