The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. "Luceo Non Uro." SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1934. DAIRY CONTROL

Southland Times, Issue 22475, 10 November 1934, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. "Luceo Non Uro." SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1934. DAIRY CONTROL

When the Dairy Commission put forward its recommendations they represented a comprehensive policy, but the Government appears to have put through the most far-reaching of them in the quickest time. The criticism in the House came chiefly from the ranks of the Labour Party, but it is by no means clear that the Coalition members are entirely satisfied with the establishment of the New Commission, nor the extension of the powers of the Dairy Board to control the local market. Mr Mason called it a corporative as distinct from a co-operative, and that is a fair estimate of it. It has introduced a principle new to this country, and it is surprising that the scheme has been discussed so little by the industry itself. If this is to be taken as an indication that the industry generally accepted the idea of closer control, in the domestic as well as in the export field, the Government is justified in its attitude to the criticism levelled at the measure in the House, but it would appear that in many quarters the idea that financial assistance would accompany the introduction of the “corporative” scheme assisted to make this new control palatable. The amendment, which installs the Minister of Agriculture as chairman certainly gives Parliament some measure of supervision, but it is slight, and the change appears to bring the new Commission into closer touch with politics, but without any real advantages. As the Commission is to consist of members appointed by the Government, the change, of course, is not important. Mr Coates, in his defence of the measure, mentioned that the reorganization of the industry was urgently needed, but it is not likely that anything of a drastic nature will be done in the middle of the exporting season,, and there is something to be said for the statements that many dairy farmers would have preferred to have seen urgency accorded the scheme for financial aid, in order to make it effective during the present season. It is impossible to set aside the implication that there has been a considerable amount of haste in connection with translating into legislation the recommendations dealing with the control by commission and board. The House has talked a great deal, though it spent more time over the details of the measure than it did over the broad principle of the compulsory control of the entire industry, and the establishment of a State corporation in which the farmers will be virtually employees working at piece rates. So far as can be seen, it has not dawned on the Dominion that this is probably the most sensational step in the direction of syndicalism yet to appear in New Zealand. The idea may be strongly suggestive of the control methods used in Italy by Mussolini, but that does not alter the fact that the scheme is syndicalist in character, and from this precedent may spring other schemes of control as comprehensive and as monopolistic in design as this one, with an extension of the Socialistic idea. At the moment the House is eager to assist the dairy farmer, but a change of government might lead to an alteration in the character of the control or to the institution of some other organization with a decided bias in the direction of the consumer, and the industry may easily find itself in an entirely different position. Certainly, it will not be in the interests of the primary producers to risk such a change once they are under this form of State control.