MEAT BOARD CONTROL.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1418, 20 October 1923, Page 7

MEAT BOARD CONTROL.

Mr W. J. Poison, the president of the Farmers' Union, whom no one will suspect of being biased against board control, has been moved to protest very strongly against the method in which the Meat Board is handling the difficulty that has arisen in connection with the Poverty Bay Farmers' Freezing Company. In a letter he addressed to the Dominion on Saturday lie castigated the chairman of the Board in terms that gentleman can hardly have expected from I an ally who had given him such valuable assistance in the promotion of "compulsory co-operation." "1 have hesitated to reply to the rejoinder of Mr David Jones in reference to the acquisition of New Zealand meat works by overseas concerns for two beasons," he wrote. "First, because Mr Jones attempts to reduce a discussion on principles to the level of a political controversy; second, because it seems to me that Mr Jones has completely answered himself and given such extraordinary proof of his inconsistency and evasiveness as to make his reply merely ridiculous." Criticism of this kind, whether justified or not. would be particularly distasteful to Mr Jones since his prominence in the commercial world is largely due to his party services while indecision and evasion are his [>et abominations. But Mr Poison does not stop with these pointed allusions to his friend's fall from grace. 'Let me say in conclusion," he adds after discussing the whole position, "thai since the formation the Board has had nothing but sympathetic support from myself in common with many other producers. On more than one occasion I have withstood pressure brought to bear on me to attack the Board over matters which I will not discuss here. But inconsistency of so grave a nature as this volte face over Vestey and Co. f personally cannot overlook. 1 must confess also tlutt/VMr Jones's attempt at justification in the matter under review is not calculated to strengthen the reputation of the Board." If one may credit one half of what has been said concerning the Board by its critics since it landed into the present trouble, Mr Poison has been exercising a good deal of restraint in holding his peace. One matter of very frequent remark is that one or two of the members of the B,oard are largely interested in freezing companies as shareholders and directors. No one has suggested that these gentlemen have been guilty of any impropriety, but their early access to inside information seems to give them an unfair advantage over their rivals.