DAIRY CONTROL BOARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 20

DAIRY CONTROL BOARD.

ITS CONSTITUTION DISCUSSED. HAWERA, August 31. The annual meeting of the Taranaki Dairy Federation to-day rejected a proposal to urge the Government to retire the merchant representatives on the Dairy Control Board. Among those present were three members of the board—Messrs W. lorns (chairman), J. R. Corrigan, and T. A. Winks. The chairman of the Taranaki Federation (Mr A. B. Muggeridge), who proposed the motion, expressed the opinion that the board as it was at present constituted was of little or no use to the industry. So far as marketing was concerned, he considered that it had ceased to perform the functions for which it had been established. The principle of hasten slowly in any question affecting the constitution of the board was supported by several speakers, fears being expressed that precipate action might lead to the abolition of the board. “ I am satisfied that with free marketing we can assure a better, fairer, and more British means of getting results than under compulsion,” said Mr lorns •in explaining the opposition tv price fixation. He was confident that the industry had lost nothing through the abolition of price fixation. Under the present system of free marketing the producers had an opportunity of comparing their account sales, and the board’s representatives at Home had a “ watch dog ” to watch the account sales in the interests of the producers. “We will always have a dairy board,” he continued. If the producers could realise even a portion of the work still being carried out in their interests they would not entertain for a moment the thought of doing away with the board. Mr lorns appealed for toleration and the principle of Freetrade. He denounced the suggestions raised elsewhere that he was running with the commercial interests, and declared that he was a staunch supporter of co-operation. Mr Corrigan said that the interests on the board leaned more to the interests of the merchants than to the interests of the producers, but the remedy lay in the hands of the producers themselves by returning the right kind of representative. )