DAIRY LEGISLATION

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1934, Page 14

DAIRY LEGISLATION

! —— GOVERNMENT DECISION ATTACKED. ’ MEETING HELD AT TAUMARUNUL i _____ » (Special to News). Taumarunui, Nov. 2S. ! A well-attended meeting called under | the auspices of the New Zealand Fanners' i Union was held in the parish hall. Tau-; marunui, on Tuesday night, when Mr. N. ’ J. B. Doughtery, Ohura, presidedMr. A. E. Robinson, provincial secretary [ of the Farmers’ Union, was the speaker,; and during his address he attacked the! proposals in the Dairy Commission's re-1 port and empowering legislation. Amendments to the original Bill, Mr. f Robinson stated, were of minor import-: ance. Such matters as registration or: farmers and specific control cf transpare • were nominally abandoned, but the ob-1 jects to be served thereby could still be : attained through the department of Agri- ; culture and the Transport Beard. Gov-; ernment control of the board would be j secured firstly by the certainty of sec- j tional interests being returned under the: system of election by dairy company dir- j ectorates, the three Government nominees I having only to play off one section > against another. If this failed the execu-. tive committee of agriculture was in full j control of the board, and could use the ■ board by giving it only delegated powers.: Elected members need not be producers. > All powers but those of fixing the levies i could be handed to an outside committee of two, which might represent all the boards and industries and amount to a ; commission in charge of industry. The dairy conference had asked far a! commission to recommend immediate re- i lief for farmers. The commission had I failed entirely to recommend any real! relief. There were minor matters to be commended, but these were entires! swamped by very bad major tscoe- j mendations. One section had complained; of the board’s being over-ridden by the! Government. It would be more completely a Government board than ever. Another section condemned the beard as too autocratic. The new board would have powers as wide as the mind coulc conceive, which the speaker enumerated. The object of almost all the _ recommendations of the report teas either to* produpe better quality’, which was not to ; be capitalised, or to apply a qtiota, which ‘ would ruin an industry already unpayable. No real relief was suggested. Th*! financial proposals were the worst at; all. These provided, where all parties! agreed, for the holding over the farmers' | heads of all their unpayable uebts, but j if prices increased ether businesses woui-o | need money, the rate of interest would | rise and the rate the farmers would hav*; to pay would rise also. This would keep; the farmers in perpetual slavery. ’H:*proposals were most distinct to see tna- s every last penny that could be obtained | for the mortgagee should be _ obtained.! and were not for relief of farming. I The following motion was moved by Mr J C. Otto, seconded by Mr. E. J. IVorralu i and was carried with one dissentient: That this meeting supports the Auckland ■ Farmers’ Union in its opposition to th*, dairying legislation adopted by Pariia-j ment and that proposed to be passed inj February, and calls upon the Farmers » Union io continue its opposition to th* j main proposals in the Dairy Commission, s, report.