AUCKLAND DAIRYMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1920, Page 8

AUCKLAND DAIRYMEN.

FREE MARKET WANTED. A representative meeting of the dairy producers of the Auckland provincial district was held at the Agricultural and Pastoral Association rooms on Wednesday to discuss the question of the disposal of the output of butter and cheese for the season following July 31, 11)20. After full discussion the following resolution was passed: "That this meeting of representative producers affirms the principle of a free market for dairy produce, and insists on the same at the expiration of the present deal on July '3l, 1920." Delegates were elected to meet in conference with representatives of other parts of the Dominion at Wellington on January 14. The producers were emphatic in their opinion that it is in the best interest of the Dominion that a free market be obtained now that war conditions have ceased to exist. Their contention was that New Zealand should now receive the full market price for its produce, and thus to some extent meet the high prices tho Dominion has to pay for goods bought in England and other countries, and thus maintain the balance of credit.

The meeting arrived at 'this decision as the result of the recent statement by Mr. H. C- Hoover, American Food Controller, to the Imperial Government. Mr. Hoover, who, as the American representative, handled the food supply of BcljSum during the war and after the signing of the armistice analysed the whole position in the interests of the Allies, is probably the greatest authority in (he world to-day on the question of fn.'d supplies. In his report to the Imperial Government, writing of the causes of food shortage, he says:— "(1) From all these causes, accumulated to different intensity in different localities, there is the essential fact that unless productivity can bo rapidly increased there can be nothing but politt--1 pal, moral, and economic chaos, finally interpreting itself in loss of life on a scale hitherto undreamed of.

"(2) No economic policy will bring food to those stomachs, or fuel to those hearths, that does not secure the maximum production. There is no uae of tears over nlsing prices; they are to a ; :/i'cat degree a visualisation of insufficient production. ■ "(3) The stimulation of production lies in the path of avoidance of all limitations of the reward to the actual producer. In other words attempts to control price.* (otherwise thr.n in the > sense of control of vicious speculation) are the negation of stimulation to production, and can only result in further curtailment of the total of commodities available for the total number of human beings to be fed, clothed, and housed. The argument so much advanced that the world shortage may develop, and justifies continued control of distribution and price, is' based upon the fallacious assumption that even if the world markets are free of restraint, there is a shortage to-day in any commodity so profound as tor' endanger health and life." The. report indicates that in Mr Hoover's opinion price restrictions should cease. It. wn;. considered that on these grounds alone (here was abundant evidence in favor of a "free market."