DAIRY CONTROL FINALE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16213, 25 August 1923, Page 9

DAIRY CONTROL FINALE.

MR. ISITT RAISES A STORM. ] STRONG PROTEST/ AGAINST COMPULSION. (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The process of getting the. Dairy Export Control Bill through tho House of Representatives was an exhausting one, and members generally felt, relieved when, at the end of the afternoon, the last clause had passed |.ho committee stage, and the third reading was reached. By general consent, there was to bo no third reading debate, and the Premier asked the House to adjourn for dinner a few minutes late, so that they could finish this work. However, he counted without Mr. Isitt (Christchurch) North), who raised a lively storm. : Mr. Isitt, who strenuously opposed the compulsory principle involved in tho measure, indulged in a little prophecy, which was the cause of all the trouble. "I say that within a fewweeks of your passing this measure from every soap-bpx and from every meeting held by my friends on my left, the Labor party—and they have a right to enunciate their principles—you will hear pa ens of triumph that the Reform party and Liberal party are now following in their wake, and accept this principle of tho right of the majority to seize, use, and handle the product of the minority. I say again, that in raising the price of butter-fat, and putting a few more millions, or thousands as the case may be, into the coffers of the farmers, you have taken a step that will absolutely rob you in future of every logical protest against similar action that tho extreme Labor party may now take, urging your action as their precedent." MrJ Edie raised a protest against this criticism, which came, as he explained, all the harder from a fellowprohibitionist and his bench mate. Mr. Holland defended the Labor party. When the war was on, he said. Mr. Isitt was prepared to allow men to lose their lives. Mr. Isitt: Hear, hear.

Mr. Holland : But when it is a matter of liquor he will compel men to go without beer or spirits—no question of liberty of the subject—but when it comes to butter-fat, apparently thero is a difference between human life, boor, and butter-fat. Buter-fat is supreme from his viewpoint. "Before a man thumps the desk and assumes a 'holier than thou' attitude," exclaimed Mr. Atmore caustically, "he should preserve consistency." Ho objected to being told that when thore were difficulties facing dairy producers that they could not combine. Why were they combining? Because they had to protect themselves from a shipping combine,

Mr. Armstrong rose amid suggestions that tho discussion ought to close, hut ho declared he was not going to allow Mr. Isitt to get away with his That*, member had made no practical suggestion in regard to any clause in tho Bill.- Indeed, ho had done nothing except wave his arms and rave. (Laughter.) II o should be one of tho last men in public life to raiso tho question of political principles, because lie was the gentleman who, when he first stood, camo to Parliament to support tho principles ho had condemned so strongly that afternoon.

A reminder from Mr. Speaker that these remarks did not appear to relate to dairy export control brought a lively incident to a <glose.