THE Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1922. IS IT SOCIALISM?

Temuka Leader, Issue 10283, 12 January 1922, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1922. IS IT SOCIALISM?

The meeting- of producers of meat held at Wellington on Tuesday at the invitation of the Government approved of the principle of a compulsory meat pool for the Dominion. We arc in agreement with this decision. The details of the scheme yet remain to be worked out, but these will not be insuperable, for we are. of opinion that a tentative scheme has already been evolved and will now he submitted to the Producers’ Committee, which has been set up. The result of Tuesday’s meeting is not altogether pleasing to many parties, chiefly we presume, because it is going in affect them financially. Were those parties producers. the scheme would not have received the, support it has done, p must be acknowledged that the approval of the scheme shows that the producers as a whole have stamped if as an honest effort, on the part of the Government to do something for the farmer by initiating a scheme which the producers alone might have taken years t.o evolve. Mr Massey made a most significant statement. He said that during the last few weeks news had been received that the glut of meat in London was being removed, that greater despatch of cargoes was takingplace, and that, there were reports of in top tied reductions in free/-} ing- charges. All these mav be at curious coincidence happening I' when (in; pool suggestion was be-( ing e'gwidevcd. We have no grt ■ belief in the lave of coin- 1 cidcnoes, because, the higher law 1 of cause, and effect nearly always explains them away. < What is remarkable about the ' whole scheme is that it is the snip- ' gesiion of Mr Massey’s Government. Had Mr Seddou proposed

-sucli a scheme years ago, we can imagine the howls that would have been raised against it. It would have been characterised as socialistic, and a few of Mr Massey’s present colleagues, as well as a section of the Press that supports his Government, would have been violently opposed to il. Such arc the changes that the whirligig of time discloses. The middlemen who stand to lose the immense profits hitherto made from the producers have been spending money very freely during the last two weeks in endeavouring to whip up public 1 opinion against the pool scheme. One cannot blame them, even though one cannot sympathise with them. Their efforts arc stimulated by the great moving force which is behind all of us. the force of self-interest. Wc arc all alarmists until our own person! interest are concerned. AVtm hope these middlemen will now join with the Exporters’ Committee in evolving a scheme that will be a benefit to the producers and the country, and in carrying out which, there will,he remunerative work for them to do. . To show the need that exists for a meat pool, Mr Massey, in his. opening remarks at .the Producers' Conference, mentioned that for a GOlb wether sold at lAd per lb in Loudon prior to the war the farmer got 15s after paying all expenses. A day or two ago he would only get Gs 3d! Mr Massey later on quoted figures showing the difference between Eng-lish-grown ami foreign meats (including Newt Zealand) on the London markets. These differences in favour of the English-grown meal ranged from 4d per Ih for shoulders of mutton to XOd for rump steak. While he admitted that New Zealand beef was not equal to British, although not to the extent indicated in the prices, he said he would not admit that there was any difference in lamb. Leading people had been unable to detect any difference, and wore perfectly amazed. (The quoted price of English lamb -was Is 8d per lb for legs and loins and Is Gd for shoulders. For New Zealand lamb the price was Is 3d for legs and Is 2d for loins and shoulders). Mr Massey believed that the time would ■come when the British Government would have to assist their fellow' citizens overseas, in such countries as New Zealand and Australia, from unfair competition, and few, w r e think will disagree with him.