DAIRY LEGISLATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21938, 23 October 1934, Page 8

DAIRY LEGISLATION

GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSALS EARLY ACTION POSSIBLE Although the report of the Dairy Commission has not yet circulated fully in the industry, interest has been draivn to the Government's legislative proposals hinging on the report. The possibility of immediate action to effect the changes recommended in the control of the industry is being widely discussed. While agreeing with the commission in its proposals for production reform, some interests object strongly to the transfer of control from the industry itself. If the Government intends at once to dissolve the present board and set up a board with State interests in the majority, opposition will almost certainly be raised. As the Government some months ago assumed responsibility for dealing with the dairy crisis, it is believed jthat action may be taken without obtaining the opinion of the industry. Probably this will depend on the views expressed at- the Government caucus to-day. The directors of dairy companies have hardly had time to consider the commission's recommendations and in the ordinary course they would not meet for some weeks yet. Farmers usually depend on a lead from the directors of companies and it would be a rather difficult matter to test the feeling of the farming community generally. RECOMMENDATIONS APPROVED VIEWS OF MR. W. J. POLSON [BY TELEGEArH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Monday Although not in complete agreement with some of the individual proposals of the Dairy Industry Commission, general approval of its recommendations was expressed to-night by Mr. W. J. Poison, president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union. "Splendid as its main recommendations are," said Mr. Poison, "they will not save the industry. We may regulate, co-ordinate and mechanise; we may refinance internally and expand markets externally; but these remedies, which might have been effective before the storm broke, are too late when there is a rent in the bottom. "If we intend to reorganise the industry, then all the recommendations are worthy of immediate consideration. We can swallow, if we must, autocratic control through a central junta of three. The triumvirate will be the real monarch of the industry and will usurp some of the functions of the Government, but it may be necessary." The marketing recommendations commended themselves to ccmmon sense, said Mr. Poison. New Zealanders were about the world's best dairy producers and its worst marketers. The report would serve to remind others than ourselves that if we could not sell we could not pay—a consideration fraught with formidable consequences.