Big Changes.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20284, 19 April 1934, Page 8

Big Changes.

Britain’s Farm Policy Altered. new marketing methods and reorganisation of her fanning industry were the subject of a lecture by Mr J. D. Ilall, president of the North Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, yesterday, when he addressed members of the executive. Mr Ilall said that a far-reaching scheme of development in the British pig industry constituted part of a comprehensive plan for converting Britain from the world’s largest importer of foodstuffs into an undisputed leader in the field of agricultural protection. The measures affected dairy produce, meat, fruit and other primary products, and were intended to enable the farmers to increase their output and sell their produce at substantially higher prices than those ruling previously. The machinery for effecting this was a combination of production and marketing organisation and of effective protection against outside competition This was provided for in two agricultural marketing Acts passed in 1931 and 1933, the latter being the more important. Farming represented one-tenth of Great Britain’s total net national production and was one of the three largest production groups.' The plan comprised a series of marketing schemes administered by marketing boards set up and controlled by the producers themselves and was a compromise between voluntary association and Government prescription, the latter to be used for the purpose of coercing the minority. Late in 1932 the British Government fixed the amounts of meat allowed to be imported so as to give domestic producers the largest possible share of the market and an increased price. The Dominions were included in the plan and accepted the arrangement for the simple reason that they were powerless to do anything else. Development Boards had been set up to direct regulation of production and would also co-ordinate primary and secondary production. Control would be exercised by means of producers’ licenses, violations of which would be punishable by fines or imprisonment. Five marketing schemes were now in operation and producers had now ample guarantee of higher prices for their products. “ Higher prices for food and clothing and the exclusion of Dominion products must raise the cost of living,” Mr Hall said, ‘‘and reduce the exports, which hitherto have been taken by those Dominions. This appears to be providing a stage for as bitter a controversy as Britain experienced in connection with the Corn Laws.Forced on Britain. In thanking Mr Hall for his address, Mr W. W. Mulholland said that it could be realised readily that regulation of imports by any system of quota would be detrimental to both buyer and seller, but there was a reason behind England’s changed policy. To a great extent the change had been forced on Britain With every other country that had a consumer’s market operating a quota restriction or an embargo, the whole weight of the surplus market was thrown on to Britain. On Mr Hall’s suggestion, it was agreed that Mr D. Jones, chairman of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Control Board, be invited to attend the provincial conference of the union and place before it any information that he might have regarding the outlook in the agricultural market.