QUOTAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21999, 4 January 1935, Page 13

QUOTAS

Sir, —It is a matter for regret that I our rulers do not adopt the attitude to j quotas of Dr. Earle Page, Deputy Prime j Minister of Australia, who says " Aus- ! tralia will oppose the institution of j quotas by Britain on our produce by ' every means within our power." Instead of adopting that definite stand, our Ministers apparently welcome the i establishment of the most dangerous, precedent of the voluntary quota. It j is a pity that Mr. Coates and Mr. Mas- ; ters did not come to somo agreement j as regards a united policy in this mat- ! ter during their recent fruitless trip to j Australia. Had they done so it is cer- 1 tain no quota would have been forced upon us by Britain. The recent letter from Lord Beaverbrook shows how our : friends working on our behalf are, let ! down by the voluntary acceptance of, quotas by our own representatives at j Home. The new pig quota ordered by i the Meat Board that no pork killed be- i tween January 1 and March 31 is to bo shipped is another example of how the grazier meat board shift their troubles on to the dairyman. First bobby calves, then boner beef. The excuse was that tlie.v are the low-priced meats. Now Pork. The same excuse cannot bo put forward in this instance. Why not put a restriction, on the export of ewes for a change? Why hit the dairy farmer every time? It is'mosfc i unfair that a growing profitablo trade should be throttled in this way and a quota of 13,000 tons should bo accepted when the Danes, who spend very little more than wo do in Britain, and who over a period of the last few years have spent some millions less, are allowed to send 300,000 tons. Wo arc told that we have a liberal bacon quota and we must make our porkers into baconers. That does not go very far with thousands of dairymen, who, owing to the drought, find their milk supply dropping from day to day at an extraordinary rate, and if this weather continues will soon be at a vanishing point. The people who made this agreement did not realise that porkers killed on January 1 will have to bo stored until the middle of September before seasonable conditions allow them to bo marketed in Britain. One thing our modern planners cannot bring under their planning schemes and that is the weather, and if the present drought continues we shall have a compulsory quota on dairy produce that will even satisfy Mr. Coates himself. J. E. Leeson.

Chairman, Morrinsville Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited.