ACTION DELAYED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18579, 13 December 1934, Page 5

ACTION DELAYED

AGRICULTURAL BILL EXECUTIVE COMMISSION PROBLEM FOR CABINET (Special to the Horald.) WELLINGTON, this day. There has been no indication so far that the Government is ready to announce the personnel of the Executive Commission of Agriculture, which formed the chief feature of the Agriculture (Emergency Powers Act) passed at the end of the recent session. Progress in this matter has been delayed, it is understood, through factors which were un expected at the time the plan was ap proved by Cabinet prior to the introduction of the measure.

There is some difficulty in completing the personnel of the commission owing to the fact that Mr. Dynes Fulton, a member of the present Dairy Board, is in sucli a poor state of health that, although the Government would have offered him one of tho three positions open, lie cannot- take up the work. The dairying industry at the moment is somewhat unfortunate in that another of its prominent figures, Mr, W. A. lorns, the chairman of the board, definitely announced his intention not to stand for office next election. It is evident that the Government in considering a suitable member of the Executive Commission having knowledge of the dairying industry, has been placed in a difficult position owing to the illness of Mr. Fulton. It has to find an alternative, and the choice of the Cabinet cannot be at present suggested. It is thought that Mr. David Jones, chairman of the Meat Board, will be offered one of the positions. The appointment is for five years, at a salary not yet stated by the Government, and one of the conditions is that the commissioners shall not bo engaged in any paid occupation other than that of the commission.

Until the Executive Commission begins to operate, there is hardly any likelihood of the financial provisions of the Emergency Act being utilised. It was provided in the measure that a sum of up to £500,000 would become immediately available from the public works fund, on terms prescribed by the Minister of Finance, for the construction, reconstruction, equipment, and improvement of dairy factories, securing improved conditions in and about dairies, the eradication of disease in dairy herds, and for any other purpose for which grants or loans may be found necessary to give effect to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Dairying Industry. The £500,000 was to be available for expenditure before March 31 next, and any further sums required would he subject to the vote of Parliament. But in the absence of the. .suitable authority for approval of loans or grants, there has been no activity in this direction.

Steps are being taken of a preliminary nature in connection with the reconstitution of the Dairy Board, involving elections on a fresh basis, but the old board is not likely to be dissolved until the Executive Commission of Agriculture has been appointed.