NEW MARKETING BILL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3771, 19 June 1936, Page 5

NEW MARKETING BILL

SENSATIONAL HEADLINES. ERRONEOUS IMPRESSION CREATED. DAIRY BOARD’S CORRECTION. London, May 2. Sensational headlines in the Daily Herald on May 1 attracted widespread attention to the expiry of the agreement between the New Zealand Dairy Control Board and Tooley Street merchants. The announcement followed the news that the Primary Products Marketing Bill had passed its first reading in the New Zealand Parliament, providing for the Government to protect primary producers from market fluctuations by acquiring the produce for export. The Daily Herald, the official Labour newspaper, gave prominence to the news, evidently with the desire to draw attention to New Zealand’s Labour Government. “Tooley Street Gets Notice” and “New Zealand Ends Agreements: No More Speculation” appeared over the announcement that agreements would lapse on July 31. “Thirty Tooley Street merchants, who for years have had virtual monopoly in New Zealand butter and cheese marketed through London, have been given notice that all agreements must lapse on July 31,” the Daily Herald stated. “The London office of the New Zealand Dairy Control Board has taken this step on instruction from the Dominion’s Labour Government. 4 s from August 1, only those firms prepared to give an undertaking not to speculate in the Dominion’s butter and cheese exports and to work strictly to an agreed commission on a turnover basis will be allotted supplies. This is the first stage in an attempt to lower costs of marketing and reduce the number of agencies handling New Zealand’s dairy produce.” The news was further emphasised by a leading article extolling the New Zealand Government, and it was claimed that the attention paid to its arrival in office was now quickening to enthusiasm. In its five months’ term, the Daily Herald proceeded, its record was one of “rapid, honest and businesslike government. If only this had been typical of the conduct of all democratic Administrations, it is safe to say that dictatorships would never have found soil in which to flourish.” The article concluded: The Government and people of New Zealand have performed a service to the British Commonwealth, and to the world, by blazing a democratic trail without excitement, without flurry, and without the smallest interruption of the ordinary parliamentary process of free debate and decision.” The prominence given to the articles caused several inquiries to be made of the New Zealand Dairy Board, which rapidly denounced the article as one giving an entirely erroneous impression. It pointed out that the agreements between the board and Tooley Street merchants were for two years only, and that it was known before the election of the present Government that the agreements would lapse on July 31 this year. The announcement that certain Tooley Street firms would be eliminated, although most of them were ready to accept the new conditions, the board refuted as being entirely presumptive as the conditions of the new agreement had not yet been made known. The board admitted, however, that the new proposals of the Labour Government would have some influence upon distribution, but emphasised that responsible Ministers had made it clear that there would be no change in the existing efficient channels of distribution.

Feeling among Tooley Street merchants was described as one of uncertainty. It was stated that they “were waiting to see what would happen next.” A man well versed in markets expresses the opinion that the large wholesaler will welcome the Government’s proposal because in their view it will, to a very large extent, eliminate the element of speculation and effect a great stabilisation of prices which they certainly do want. The experiment is a bold one, but in time it should work out all right. As to the fixation of prices “which must follow,” the same authority instanced the case of Denmark. Denmark exports both butter and bacon. In the case of butter the price is fixed by a co-operative committee in the country of origin; in the case of bacon the price is fixed by the London Provision Exchange. Fluctuations of Danish bacon prices are wild, while, on the contrary, butter is fairly stable —just a variation of 2s or so, and certainly is nothing dramatic. When things settle down it should not be beyond the power of the New Zealand Government to cable to the High Commissioner’s office what is to be the price of butter for the following week. Danish butter is not subjected to the sudden and heavy fluctuations experienced by New Zealand.

DIPLOMACY. He called at the house and asked if she had any carpets to beat, adding that he had been at the business for twenty years. “How much to beat that carpet?” she inquired. “Ten shillings.” “Why, that’s awful! There was a man here yesterday who offered to do it for six shillings.” “Exactly, ma’am, but how was he prepared?” “Prepared? He had a stick in his hand.” “He intended to take the carpet out on the vacant piece of ground over there, didn’t he?” “Yes.” “Exactly, and that is a Brussels

“How would you do it?” “I take the carpet out the back way, I wheel it home and beat it in my garden, which is surrounded by a high fence. I bring it back rolled up and covered with a cloth. If anyone asks me what I have, I reply that it is a velvet carpet for 21 Blank Street. If no one asks questions I call at the houses on either side of you and ask if they have ordered a new Wilton. They watch me and see me come to you.” He got the job. carpet, much worn—it has holes in it. He would make a great show getting in and out here. Out on the public ground he would give you away to everyonfe who asked to whom it belonged. Is that the way you want the job done?”