MARKET CONTROL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 643, 22 December 1932, Page 5

MARKET CONTROL.

Proposal to Deprive Boards of Rights. FARMERS’ PROTEST. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, December 21. j An emphatic protest against the re- | ported request of the Associated Chamj bers of Commerce that the Government should bring in legislation with a view to depriving the Meat and Dairy Boards of their existing rights by which they control the shipping and marketing of meat and dairy produce, was registered by the executive of the New Zealand Farmers Union in a letter received at a meeting to-day of the executive of the Associated Chambers of Commerce. The letter stated that the union would not like to see either the Meat or the Dairy Control Acts repealed and considerable criticism had been directed at the Associated Chambers over its action in advocating repeal. The meeting decided to reply point- ! ing out that the union had an altoi gether wrong impression of the attitude j of the association. The latter was not opposed to voluntary organisation of producers which, indeed, it was only too willing to assist, but it was against the extreme powers vested in the produce boards, as those powers were, in its opinion, opposed to the interests of the producers and the country generally. The association was advocating the repeal, not of the legislation under which the various produce boards .operated, but of the clauses in Acts which gave powers to the boards to assume absolute control of produce. That power was a strong deterrent to the efforts of private firms and companies in seeking new markets overseas for dairy produce and meat, since the boards could forcibly take over those markets once they were established. Under the fruit and honey boards, which were actually applying absolute control, the private ! merchant was at present not permitted j to operate in markets he himself had * originally established.