POULTRY INDUSTRY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3842, 4 December 1936, Page 7

POULTRY INDUSTRY

GOVERNMENT CONTROL PREDICTED. ACT NEXT YEAR. Government control of the poultry industry next year was predicted lasc Saturday by the Rev. W. F. Stent, president ot the New Zealand Poultry Producers’ Federation at the annual meeting of the Palmerston North branch. Mr Stent said in his opinion the industry would be controlled next year by the Government or by a committee under Government sanction or control. He had good reason for his opinion because he knew what the Government was doing. Some form of control would be brought about by Act of Parliament. Since the last poultrymen’s conference in April the Minister and the officers of the Department of Agriculture had been engaged on correlating information to bring about some form of control in the marketing of poultry-farmers’ products. The poultiy board, of which he was a member, asked for producer control—that was, with a certain proportion of Government members, but there was no certainty that they were going to get that. The Government had sent men to Sydney and around New Zealand who had looked into the subject from all aspects and was gathering all information relating to their peculiar industry. He said peculiar advisedly, because none other had its manifold peculiarities. It was the only industry, with the possible exception of the tobacco industry, depending for its existence entirely on internal consumption. He had said the poultry board would go out of existence, but had not expressed that opinion in any sense of criticism. He meant that two organisations depending on a levy on the industry could not exist together. He could see no objection to the difference between the wholesale and retail prices being absolutely fixed for the whole Dominion. In the, past everythin had been done to encourage retailers to keep the price down instead of up. Strong criticism of petty jealousies between provinces, cities, towns, and districts as bars to progress in the Dominion generally and the poultry industry in particular was made by Mr Stent. Mr Marchant, Himatangi, said any 10-year average of "rices was not wanted. Although poultry - farmers were not in business in such a big way as dairy-farmers they owned a bigger proportion of their properties and even if the Government took over their mortgages or even discharged them free of cost, >t would not mean id a dozen on eggs to them. Mr Stent replied that there had been no whisper yet from authoritative sources of guaranteed prices. Nothing definite, even about control, would be done until the Hon. W. Nash returned from London.

A drop in membership from 60 to 30 was recorded in the annual report, and the branch-president, Mr W. T. Jones, stated it appeared there was insufficient attraction for “side-liners” to join up, despite every effort to stimulate interest. Mr Stent said there were 87 branches in the federation, extending from Auckland to South Otago, and 17 district councils. Its total annual revenue was £3O, and half of that was swallowed up in postage and stationery. It was impossible for the executive to meet even once a year because of lack of finance.