PREMIUMS ON CHEESE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1023, 14 July 1930, Page 9

PREMIUMS ON CHEESE

VOLUNTARY PLAN FAVOURED PRODUCE BOARD’S ATTITUDE From Our Oicn Correspondent NEW PLYMOUTH, Today. Replying to a suggestion that there was disappointment in Taranaki regarding the attitude of the Hairy Produce Board to the question of levying the cheese industry in order to pay a premium on finest grade, Mr. J. RCorrigan, one of the Taranaki representatives on the board, said that, though the board had not been able to reach any official decision, It nevertheless favoured the voluntary introduction of the scheme recommended at the National Dairy Association conference. Mr. Corrigan said it was found that the board, under its statutory powers, could not levy sufficient upon the industry to warrant the payment of a premium on the basis suggested. The question of applying to Parliament for the necessary extension of the board’s buving powers was debated at length and finally it was deemed inadvisable at the present juncture to take the matter before the House, on the grounds that the board’s motives might be misunderstood and that the result might be to the great detriment of the industry’s interests as represented by the board. It was felt, however, that there would be no difficulty in the way of South Taranaki introducing a voluntary levy and premium based upon the grade declared at the Patea grading stores. It was probable also that a similar system might be introduced in North Taranaki through the stores at New Plymouth. The board felt that the voluntary introduction of the system in Taranaki, and the benefits derived from the consequent improvement of chawe, would make the introduction of a Dominion system, with separate pools for each grading port as originally suggested, an easy matter.

DOMINION POOL FAVOURED

SUPPORT FROM SOUTHLAND \ Press Association. INVERCARGILL, Saturday. Dairy factory representatives from all over Southland attended a meeting convened in Invercargill today by the South Island Dairy Association to discuss the question of branding Southland cheese and also the proposal regarding the payment of premium according to grade. Mr. H. J. Middleton. chairman of the South Isk.nd Dairy Association, presided, and Mr. W. G. Wright. secretary of the association; Mr. John Dunlop, a member of the Dairy Board; and Mr. T. C. Brash, secretary of ’ the Dairy Board, were present. Mr. Middleton explained that at a meeting held in Invercargill a Southland brand was favoured, but at a conference in Dunedin, where many representatives from Southland were present, a unanimous vote favoured a South Island brand representing the whole territory. It was surely, he said, the duty of the directors of the association to give a lead, and bethought that an expression of opinion on this important question should be quite definite. He found it somewhat difficult to understand why there should be any objection to a South Island brand. Mr. Middleton did not think that Southland's position would be imperilled by adopting a South Island brand. Personally, lie thought the great thing was to establish a high standard of produce. After some discussion a motion was carried that the meeting was emphatically opposed to a South Island brand, and emphatically adhered to its decision to support a Sou»hland brand. The meeting then discussed the proposal raised at the Hamilton conference regarding the payment of a premium according to grade. The chairman favoured a premium payment scheme being placed on a national basis. He suggested a resolution that this meeting of representatives of the cheese industry in Southland, viewing with grave alarm continuous reports which are being received from over seas regarding a serious decline in the quality of New Zealand cheese, strongly urges the dairy division in conjunction with the Dairy Board. take, without delay, whatever steps may be necessary to give effect to *% scheme for premium payments, as car- ■ ried at the Hamilton conference, tho scheme, however, to be made applicable on a national basis, with one pool for the whole Dominion, instead of being divided into separate groups/* Mr. Brash commended Southland and Otago producers on keeping up their quality, while in the North many factories had gone for ouantitv at t expense of grade. There was opposition In the Nor+li to a Domini mi r*ool, because for a time it would m<*in the transfer cf money from the Nortn to the South Now at last the X~rth was alive to the need of doing something with regard to keeping up quality

The motion urging a Dominion pool was carried unanimously.