N.Z'S “GOOD HAND”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18580, 14 December 1934, Page 5

N.Z'S “GOOD HAND”

DAIRY NEGOTIATIONS COMMENT BY MINISTER NEW POLICY DEFENDED (Special to the Heiald.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Dominion dairy conference, which declined to adopt a motiou of opposition to the Agriculture (Emergency Powers) Act, but requested the GoVornnient to appoint as producers’ representatives- on the Executive Com mission the nominces v of the Meat and Dairy Boards respectively, was told by the Hon.. C. E. Macmillan, Minister of Agriculture, that New Zealand producers had to be-prepared to meet the situation if quotas were forcedjuppn them, and he considered that, in card parlance, they “had a good hand.” •Restriction, declared the Minister, had never been suggested by New Zealand, but he likened the position to that of the oyster which was opened without its consent. But-were the producers, he asked, to remain as dumb as an oyster if quotas were imposed'? Nobody was . proposing a quota except Britain, and no .good would be' done by standing on the house tops to shout: “We 4° not want quotas.When' the person'with whom they were negotiating wanted something different from themselves, they should put themselves in the strongest' possible position to give away as little as possible of the principles they had. enunciated. BARGAINING POWER

For this reason, the Executive Commission of Agriculture, as the' coordinating .authority, was needed to bargain with the Old Country. New Zealand could go into those negotiationos and tell Britain that, compared with other portions of the Empire, they were giving the Old Country the best deal of the lot.

He aud his Ministerial colleagues had come to the conclusion that it was advisable, when these negotiations took place, for them to be able to say that New Zealand was the one country which had not dumped its goods into Britain, for there was no disparity between the price of butter in New Zealand and that which obtained in Britain, whereas all other countries sent in butter under conditions which the customs authorities would call dumping. “This conference must take place sooner or later,” added the Minister, “and we are going into it with the best cards in our hands. We have to move with the times, for people who do not will get left.” Denmark was asking the Old Country for a 10 per cent restriction. Who was going to give tho answer? Surely the Government was right in putting tho necessary machinery in motion to be able to answer in the best interests of the dairying industry, and he would give his pledge that the industry would be consulted.

Turning to the proposal for control over New Zealand marketing conditions, Mr. Macmillan said the consumer had to be considered, particularly in a political sense, for the consumer outvoted the producer. (Laughter.) If thero was majority rule in the Dominion, then the consumer had a say. . ' '

DAIRY. COMPANY’S ACTION He bad been told that one dairy company had entered into agreement to sell butter for 21 years at a price id, per lb. less than the current wholesale rate, and he wished to declare quite, plainly that it was not fair, as between man and man, and not in the interests of the industry. It was a clever way of side-stepping what was generally known in the promise made by himself and the Prime Minister that there would be power given to control tho local market, but here was a concern, professing to be co-operative, and to act in the interest of industry as a whole, putting itself deliberately outside the control of tho local market. Therefore, it was necessary to have a clauso in tho Act which read: “No person shall be liable for damages for any breach of contract insofar as that breach of contract is occasioned by compliance with the regulations made under this section.” Mr. Green: Would it be a breach of trust if the Minister names the company? Mr. Macmillan declined to mention names, but subsequently Mr Phillips, a delegate of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairying Company, stated that everyone knew that his company had made a long contract with a Wellington firm for tho supply of butter, but not on the terms mentioned by tho Minister. The contract had long been in existence, and a copy had been submitted to the Royal Commission.