THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1934 GOVERNMENT'S DAIRY PLAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21781, 21 April 1934, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1934 GOVERNMENT'S DAIRY PLAN

In considering the Prime Minister's statement detailing the policy and intentions of the Government toward the dairying industry, first place must be given to the true central point. The Government has decided to accept full responsibility for the fate and future of the industry. That is the historic feature of what the Prime Minister has said. Until now, although the Government has assisted in its development in various .ways, the dairying industry has stood on its own feet. Nobody outside its ranks has been answerable for its success or its failure. In future this will not be so. As a prelude to the application of remedies for the present conditions of depression and difficulty, the Government has deliberately taken its fate and its future on its own shoulders. It is a drastic step, a tremendous change for an industry which has hitherto prided itself on its independence and insisted on its right to manage its own affairs. That such a move should be judged necessary is indicative of the serious crisis caused by the continued depression in the market for dairy produce. It has to be assumed that the Government has acted' with a due sense of the gravity of this departure from previously accepted policy. To take so momentous a step lightly or unthinkingly would be unpardonable, and there is no reason for suspecting that its consequences have not been fully w T eighed. In the circumstances, therefore, as it must be accepted that the Government has acted under a sense of compulsion. the only resort is to deplore the desperate condition of the industry thus indicated, to hope that the best course has been taken in the face of adversity, and, whenever the opportunity "offers, to co-operate with the Government in its self-imposed task. The outlook is too grave for any other course to be possible. Accepting perforce the step the Government has decided to take, it is still permissible to weigh the arguments with which it has been supported, and to consider the merits of what it is proposed to do. The Prime Minister indicates that the refusal of the dairy industry to negotiate along the lines of a regulation of supplies has strained relations with the United Kingdom. The Government, therefore, will endeavour to restore those relations to a basis of cordiality, and to find some acceptable arrangement. It is true that in the recent vigorous campaign for a restriction of dairy imports into Great Britain, New Zealand has been often quoted as the prime cause of the flooded market—too often for justice. Is there any proof that the tone of resentment so heard represents British opinion generally ? In the last communication from the Dominions Office to be officially divulged, it was stated that a dairy produce quota was no longer a question of moment with the British Government. If it has been abandoned, why should New Zealand's refusal to accept it be resented, as the Prime Minister implies? Again, all New Zealand has ever asked is the observance of an agreement signed at Ottawa and subsequently ratified. It is not in character for the British Government or the British people to resent the assumption that they would keep their word where it had been given. Whatever, therefore, the force of the other reasons the Government has had for taking its momentous step, this one is not so compelling as has been represented. It is not, however, the whole case. The desire is expressed also to do certain things, which, successfully accomplished, will undoubtedly be for the benefit of the industry. To raise quality, to impi-ove marketing conditions, to explore new markets, to broaden the base of primary industry so that there will be less dependence on dairying in its present form—these are essential tasks. They should be capable of accomplishment without the State acting as an over-riding authority. Since, however, the different elements in the industry heave found it difficult to subscribe to a common policy, they find the Government intervening and making its own plans. The whole tone of the Prime Minister's statement is that the time for decisive action has come. Yet he immediately qualifies this by announcing that a Royal Commission of inquiry will be held to deal with a complicated order of reference bearing on the distressed industry. This is a process which spells delay. If the Government intends waiting for the result of this investigation before doing anything, it will bear the responsibility it has shouldered for a considerable time without achieving much. The answer to many of the points for inquiry must come from experts. The State has its own experts in the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture. They could easily be called into consultation without the machinery of n Royal Commission intervening. Moreover, as has been recently shown, the Dairy Division might have done more in the past if it had been stronger and more insistent in pressing upon the industry methods which were for its own good. Resistance wa3 not met with firmness, and there is more than a suspicion that,

affected by political considerations, Governments have not inspired the department to show the strong, vigorous qualities of leadership it might have. Is the reinforcement of this weakness to be a result of the new role the Government proposes to play? It bears a responsibility now that it did not before; perhaps it has an opportunity that was not offering previously. In any event, there is no question that it has undertaken something of very grave moment. The things it proposes to attempt inside New Zealand, especially the campaign for higher quality in output, are necessary, indeed vital, an this state of emergency a key industry faces. If the drastic, almost revolutionary, move of taking the fate of dairy farming on its shoulders is to be justified by results, this will be accomplished only by selecting clearly defined objectives and driving straight toward them. If such a procedure is adopted, the Government may avoid that entanglement of over-elaborate planning, rules and regulations which is always a lurking danger when, as now, the State ventures into new fields.