DAIRYMEN’S CONFERENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1932, Page 4

DAIRYMEN’S CONFERENCE

SUBJECTS TO BE DISCUSSED

o ORDERS ON SUPPLIERS’ CHEQUES.

CHEESE FACTORY MILK GRADING.

DIFFERENTIAL CREAM PAYMENT.

Orders on dairy factory cheques will probably a consid erable amount of discussion at the next National Dairy Association conference to be held at Palmerston North, .no fewer than six remits having refer ? n to the question have been forwarded by different companies. In most of the - mits the present position is viewed with alarm. , • The growth of the order system is deprecated and one remit suggests that companies should refuse if possib e accept orders made by suppliers, ine general tone of the remits, however, is that a small charge of, say,. 2| per cent, be made on monies so disbursed. Reimbursement of dairy companies for the cost of cheques, postages and stationery and of company secretaries for the extra work entailed is generally urged. . , The question of milk grading at cheese factories is likely to be one of the most vital subjects for. decision ■before the conference. The Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. C. E. MacMillan, has intimated that he will be guided by an expression of opinion from the conference as to whether the new regulations will remain in force after the present season, and directors of cheese ’factories are advised to give this important matter their full consideration so that a clear expression of the views iof the industry may be obtained through their delegates. Differential payments for finest, first and second grade cream will also .be the subject of controversy, there being four remits to be considered by the conference. Three suggest an amendment to clause 22 of the Dairy Industry Amendment Regulations of 1926, and of these two seek that whole-milk or whey cream containing less than 35 per cent. ! by weight of butter-fat shall be paid for at the rate of Id per lb less than ■the rate that would have been payable according to its grade. The third remit supports differential payments for cream containing less than 32 per cent., ■and for cream containing 35 to 38 per cent, butterfat.

METHODS OF PAYMENTS.

The remaining remit referring to differential payments suggests that the payment should be at least id per lb of butter-fat more for cream graded as finest than... for that graded as first grade, and at least id per lb less for cream graded as second grade thau that graded as first grade. . The cost of factory and. farm requisites constitutes the basis of three remits. One draws attention to the increased price of New Zealand-made churns following the raising of the duty on the imported article, another concerns stock medicines, and a third the cost of parts for agricultural and dairy machinery. ; Two remits support the contention that the holding of two dairy conferences —the National Dairy Association conference and the Dairy Produce Board conference —in one year is not warranted on the grounds of expense and. in view of the present economic position of the industry. One remit proposes that the board’s conference be not held this season and the other that the association conference should decide which of the two should be continued in the future. ' Dairy company articles of association form the subject of a long remit which is accompanied by a longer explanatory note. As the law stands, it is stated, no co-operative company can rely on the validity of its articles dealing with the allotment of additional shares on butter-fat production, nor can it seek with confidence to enforce the penalties prescribed in an article purporting to bind a shareholder to supply his produce to the company. The remit to be submitted to the conference is in three parts, and suggests that legislation be brought down to terminate this uncertainty. . Many other questions of interest to the dairy industry will be brought before the conference in the shape of remits. They include factory grading only of cream, the future of the Dairy Produce Board, reduction in levies, overlapping in cream carting, statement of over-run by proprietary companies, interchange of grading officers, marking of whey butter and Empire preference. The full text of the remits and rules framed 'by the executive to govern the procedure of future conferences will be 'found on another page of this issue.