THE GOVERNMENT COMPULSORY POOLING SCHEME FOR MEAT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18445, 5 January 1922, Page 7

THE GOVERNMENT COMPULSORY POOLING SCHEME FOR MEAT.

IS THERE AN ALTERNATE t Thte supporters ofthe scheme now admit that .‘there axe jjrave difficulties attendant * upon a compulsory pool which compel ;all owners to put their fat stock into* itj-'tad , $ accept a percentage (Mr Jones, the chair- .'!?!■ man of the Government Committee, thinks . 90 per cent, is rather too high) of whatever, • x ' value the Control Board puts upon it, and afterwards take the risk of any loss made by the board in selling it. They ■ 'ask if there is any alternative to the compulsory r pool, and the answer is, emphatically,— A VOLUNTARY POOL. .. ’ ; Compulsion is dead:—There are sheepfarmers all over both islands yho hate- it, ’ ‘ and realise it’s dread consequences so well , that they are signing petitions against ib» hundreds. i’anoy, that ,in in 1922, in peace time men should be praying the Government not to take away •their freedom to sell their stock in their own way. We are getting just what ;woa prophesied ■ during • the -■ wan—a race ol ■ i bureaucrats, who Will endeavour to retain as • • long as possible, _ and increase, the powers over the people that the War Controls, gave thorn. , , ;/;• ' iln increasing^ 1 number of producers'are 4Py.ing that, if the Government wants' to - i assist tlio small holders who cannot 'livo under present conditions, it can help'by in- i ttoduoing this voluntary pool, and fixing minimum prices for. all grades of stock... It can advance to tho grower 100 per. cent of the minimum price, and take tho -risk of tho-selling itself, instead of holding it‘Over the small man who has received tho advance. - • r, The Government can seek the help ‘.and advice of the London Meat Trad© in mar- ’ ■ kefing this -voluntarily .pooled meat—the -j latest cables from London unanimously state that nobody with experience at-that v‘ end has yet been consulted, which is extraordinary. Trh There seems no doubt whatever that, the advisers of the Government have blundofed ‘ into antagonising the ' whole of the Meat Trade, both hero and in England. It is, said that tho “best.brains” have been con- .- suited; but against that there is tho denial of all the successful Meat Traders. ithnt ■ a they know anything about tho scheme until ■ I they saw it in print. ■ ,:? During tho late Imperial Commandeer; " when the British Government made a ' straight-out purcliaso of all the moat, and bore all the expenses on it afterwards (a very different thing from the present compulsory scheme, which forces a. man to allow a Government pool to gamble with his meat upon a dangerously glutted market, and tells him he will have to stand all expenses and any losses) tho leading men * in tho meat trade gave a generous, loyal,- •/ and highly skilled co-operation, which proved of untold value. v. It would bo a disastrous thing for New Zealand if the proposed pool came into existence and made a mess of tho trade apd the dominion woko one morning to find sho had lost tlio London- Market; that she was *• loft with the State Socialistic-dream;- while : other countries had the business.-—Advt,