DAIRY CONTROL.

Wairarapa Age, 15 June 1927, Page 5

DAIRY CONTROL.

MR. STRONACH PATERSON’S POSITION. DESIRES COMMISSION INQUIRY. WELLINGTON, June 14. In a lengthy letter to Mr Grounds, Chairman of the Dairy Produce control Board, Messrs Morison, Smith and Morison, solicitors for Mr Stronach Paterson, late Government representative on the board’s London Agency, call attention to the fact that Mr Paterson noted various New Zealand newspapers, including the “Dairy Produce Exporter,” of March 26 last, giving what purported to be Mr Grounds’s version of Mr Paterson’s actions in'll is capacity of Government representative. Mr Paterson was unable to reply at once by reason of his distance from New Zealand, and to do so now would be futile. Therefore, he did not consider it desirable at this stage to enter into a discussion on the merits or demerits of price fixation of dairy produce in London, an issue already settled at the expense of New Zealand farmers, but Mr Paterson desires to repudiate what he regards as gross misrepresentation by Mr Grounds of his (Mr Paterson’s) actions as Government representative on the London Agency. Therefore, he would welcome the opportunity to have his actions fully investigated before a Royal Commission or other appropriate tribunal. Mr Paterson further considers that Mr Grounds, in his attadk on him (Mr Paterson), referred to conversations which Mr Paterson understood were confidential, and further that Mr Grounds’s attack contained complete misstatements of fact, distorting the general aims and effect of Mr Paterson’s work. Mr Paterson expects to return to Nbw Zealand in October, when he will be ready to participate in a public investigation into his own actions, and what he terms the board’s disastrous policy.—(P.A.)