DAIRY CONTROL

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11658, 24 October 1923, Page 4

DAIRY CONTROL

The referendum of milk suppliers has gone off without a hitch. A very satisfactory ending for a new thing of which no one concerned had any experience at all. The fact may encourage Parliamentarians and others who want things done smartly in days to come. The scrutineers, however, who watched the proceedings and have commented on them have not stressed this point. After bearing . their testimony to the courtesy of the officials, their skilful handling of the work, and the ii; usTngoncc shown by the voters, they devoted their attention to what they consider a probability. After analysis of the figures as they came in, they think that if more time had been given for the referendum, the majority for compulsion would have been less. In the beginning the voting was four to one; in the end it was three to one. The result these gentlemen ascribe to the adverse propaganda. If thiß, they think, had had more time, it would have been more successful. It is not an infallible conclusion, of course. But it is a reasoned conclusion, and may have probability behind it. It may, without violence to the argument, even be said that, with sufficient time for adverse propaganda to sink in, the verdiot might have been against the compulsory clauses. Such speculations are, of course, without much practical weight. What we have to do at the end of a referendum is to face the fact established, not to speculate on what might have been. If it could be shown that the time was too short, that, in fact, the thing was rushed, to the detriment of calm judgment, there would he a case at least for a protest. But this is not the contention, so far as we can see, of the scrutineers. Neither could we 6ee that they could have so contended, because the referred question was fully discussed in the six weeks between the passing of the Act and the voting. Moreover, the bill, which originally provided for compulsion without any referendum, was before the public some time before the referendum clause was added. / During all that time the opponents of compulsion were very active But we are not objecting to the opin ion expressed by the scrutineers Though, so far as the verdict of the referendum is concerned, that opinion has no more weight than a speculation is entitled to, the opinion may have value as a warning that possibly the majority in favour of compulsion may not be as great as the three to one recorded. This it may lie well to hear in mind in view of the statement frequently made when the hill was under discussion, that compulsion would be used moro as a tacit threat than as an established fact. There may he reason for caution. Three to one is, however, a majority large enough to make it fair to say that nobody's hands are tied.