DAIRY CONTROL BOARD DISPUTE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17834, 30 April 1926, Page 13

DAIRY CONTROL BOARD DISPUTE.

DISSENTERS EXPRESS VIEWS TO MR COATES.

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 29. The delegates who withdrew from the, conference held yesterday to discuss the method of electing members to the Pairy Control Board, waited on the. Prime Minister this afternoon, and on their behalf Mr W. A. Yeitrh. II P,, who presided at. the eounter-conforenec. handed the following statement to Mr Coates: — . , l. When the Dairy l onferenee was first called by Mr Grounds, he issued a circular to the industry stating that the conference would appoint its own chairman, and decide for itself the method of voting at the conference. This was only right and proper. At a later date Mr Grounds issued a second circular, stating that he would be chairman of the conference, and that voting at the conference would be on a tonnage basis, ft was obvious that, anv such method of voting would not reflect the views of the industry. 3, When the roll was called, it was ascertained that, there were 357 far. tories represented at the conference. It was the largest, meeting of the whole industry that had ever been held, and represented approximately 59,000 suppliers. 3. As a bodv we. knew that we represented 43 per cent of those suppliers, and yet, on the unfair tonnage basis of voting at the conference, we qjily carried 28 per cent of the voting strength of the conference. 4. In the first place, we challenged the chair purely on the question of principle. Mr Grounds refused to accept any motion along these lines, or to submit the matter to the vote at the conference. When lie was asked why he had changed his first, method of leaving the conference to fix its own chairman and method o£ voting, he threw

the onus on the Minister of Agriculture. It is for the Minister of Agriculture to say whether he accepts the responsibility or not.

o. The first division of the conference I arose on the question of electing niern- | bers of the board on the democratic principle of one producer one vote. We objected to the conference voting on this question on a tonnage basis, and, when Mr Grounds refused to accept any motion determining the system of voting at the conference, we withdrew in a body, and established a conference of our own in a separate building. 6. Our conference consisted of eightysix representatives from 113 factories, comprising 21.264 tons of butt©?, 11,693 tons of cheese and 21,688 suppliers, or, in other words, 43 per cent of the suppliers who were represented in Wellington. 7. We passed the following resolution unanimously: " That this meeting of representatives of dairy companies expresses its emphatic desire that members of the Dairy Control Board be elected on the single ward system, six wards for the North Island and three wards for the South Island, one producer one vote." 8. The delegates who remained at the Town Hall represented 57 per cent of the suppliers, but it was not long before they came to loggerheads among themselves on the question of the individual suppliers’ vote, and a division was taken. Details of the. voting on the division on the suppliers’ basis are not yet available, but a very large section were strongly in favour of the. voting being left in the. hands of the individual suppliers. Others, again, admitted that, the principle of the producers exercising an individual vote was right and proper, but difficult to carry out in practice. It is evident, therefore, that delegates to Wellington representing at least 70 per cent of the suppliers of the Dominion were in favour of the individual producer exercising his vote for members of the board. Our section, representing 43 per cent of the suppliers, stands for the principle of one producer one vote, and at least another 30 per cent are strongly in favour of the individual suppliers exercising their vote, but on a different basis, while the remaining delegates, representing not more than 25

per cent of the suppliers, are in favour of the factory directors electing the board.

9. In spite of the foregoing, Mr Grounds is to-day presenting the Prime Minister with a resolution asking for legislation for the individual factory directors to elect the Control Board on a tonnage basis. 10. Mr Grounds received early in the morning a cablegram from Mr lorns, one of the board’s representatives in London, but it was not read to the conference. until late in the afternoon. It read: " Consider it advisable to retain direct individual producers’ vote for candidates or* ward system to retain producers’ interest in board.”

11. We maintain that the individual suppliers must be allowed to exercise their vote for their own representative on the Control Board, and that there is only one sound and democratic method of voting, namely, one producer one vote.

After considerable discussion, Mr Coates said that the matter would have to be dealt with by the Cabinet, and the Bill afterwards submitted to the House.