MARKETING DAIRY PRODUCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19487, 17 November 1926, Page 12

MARKETING DAIRY PRODUCE.

The report that the Prime Minister's mediation has led to agreement between the Dairy Control Board and the British traders will bring some measure of relief to the anxieties of the Dominion's dairy producers. A fuller and more authoritative statement of the "mutually acceptable policy" will, however; be required to dissipate the misgivings aroused by the events of the past month. Producers will especially be disposed to reserve judgment upon the value of the compromise because the cabled explanation does not reveal any actual modification of the proposal devised by the board at its meeting on October 27. It was then announced that the board had decided to abandon the policy of price-fixing in favour of a, system of naming prices from time to time in consultation with representatives nomi nated by the dairy produce irn porters. That plan was apparently accepted in London, for the names of the traders' representatives on the joint committee were announced, and prices for the new season's butter and cheese were named Ostensibly it has been in operation for nearly three weeks, but very evidently it has not had the solvent effect that was promised, for all re ports agree that the new season's butter under the board's control has been neglected by the market. To day's report may mean either that the London traders have been con vinced of the moderation of the board's proposals and have agreed to co-operate with it, or that the board has made further concessions. Read literally, the cabled statement

gives fresh emphasis to the fact that the board has completely abandoned its ideas of fixing prices and holding supplies until the market yielded to its terms, The most urgent aspect of the present critical situation is an effective solu tion of the deadlock in London, but whenever peace has been restored there the board will be forced to review its attitude toward the producers themselves. Whatever force may have been in the arguments for the application of compulsory control has been destroyed by the radical modi fication of the board's methods.