SIDELIGHTS OF CONTROL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16208, 4 December 1926, Page 5

SIDELIGHTS OF CONTROL

THE MINISTRY OF FOOD TESTIMONIAL TO A NEW ZEALANDER• (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. - There many things of direct interest to New Zealanders in the volume published by the Oxford University Press “A State Trading Adventure,” written by Mr. Frank Collier, C. 8., who was for some time Secretary to the British Ministry of Food during the war period. It covers the operations of this important department, which traded to the extent of £1.400,000.000. Mr. Collier is satisfied that the department performed its functions satisfactorily, and met a great national need, though lie suggests in the preface that the experiment could not be repeated in normal times with equally satisfactory results: “The paradox of-food control is that it secures at once the encouragement of the producer and tho comfort of the distributor; the consumer is left to crave for subsidies, inevitably less abundant as the taxpayer disappears. Control, moreover, is apt to ignore quality, and on “the emergence of quality civilisation depends. But the real objection to State trading is its extreme susceptibility to political pressure.” An enthusiastic testimonial is given to a. New Zealand helper by Mr. Collier. The operations of the department were vigilantly - watched by a Consumers’ Council, and it- occasionally had to undergo the ordeal of public inquiry. On one of these occasions a New Zealand Rhodes scholar rendered a signal service in defensive tactics. Says Mr. Collier: “The Reform Club could produce no bacon expert. but from Sir Harold’s Stuart’s old staff was extracted an All Black Rhodes scholar. Kenneth Sisam, who combined a mastery of trade intricacies with a facility of presentation that subsequently enabled him to withstand Sir John Simon’s cross-examination for upwards of two hours without losing a point. . . Our seeksaw policy needed a strong line of defence.” DISPOSAL PROBLEM SOLVED. New light is thrown on the way hi which large surplus stocks were disposed of after the war. The department was left with 69,000 tons of butter in hand, as well as 3500 tons of cheese. There was instituted a system of direct sale to the public at cash prices fixed and announced from week to week. Tho trade advised continuance of Government purchases of cheese from the Dominions, but the department declined, and Mr. Collier states that in three weeks it sold its cheese at a profit of £25,000, and ten days after the clearance the market dropped 30s a cwt. “The quantity of butter to be sold was 40,0CX) tons more thaji was expected owing to the fact that the Australian shipments under the last contract doubled the estimates of the exportable surplus furnished in advance by the two colonial governments. While New Zealand butter could generally be relied upon for an average high standard of quality, there was an enormous difference in quality between different shipments of Australian butter, which hampered the operations of the department during tlie disposal period. “By the middle of December some 50,000 tons of butter had been cleared, and there still remained about 20,C00 tons of sound butter to be disposed of in competition with the new season’s supplies. The two colonial governments (Australia and New Zealand) had asked us in the interests of their producers to hold up the sale of the remainder until the following autumn. This course was impracticable for several reasons, but we offered to let the colonial governments buy back the unsold stocks at half price, so that they could control their disposal. While they were hesitating over this suggestion, we found that the principal traders here were quite ready to take over all the New Zealand butter at a fair price, and all the Australian butter at a knock-out price. As these respective prides enabled us to realise £30,000 more than if the colonial governments had accepted our offer, we hastily closed with the traders, with the result that our entire stocks were cleaved by the middle of January, and New Zealand butter was selling gailv at Is 4d a lb. in place of the 4s 6d price which had been threatened 12 months earlier, if the Government contract were not renewed.“NEVER SUBSIDISED MORE CHEERFULLY.” Mr. Collier concludes his story of the disposal problem with another testimonial to New Zealanders: “There vy a ? a net loss of three-quarters of a million, but the drop of 50 per cent, in the retail price of butter was of great benefit to the consumer, while the encouragement given to New Zealand producers proved invaluable. It seemed at one time impossible that we should be able to make up from any source whatever the loss of our Siberian butter supplies, but the New Zealand producer has filled the gap. We never bestowed subsidy more cheerfully.”