DAIRY PRODUCE.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1419, 23 October 1923, Page 5

DAIRY PRODUCE.

REFORM OF TOOLET STREET. PLEA FOR CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT. Sir Thomas Allen, director of the Wholesale Co-operative Association of London, as well as of the New Zealand Produce Marketing Association, delivered an address to directors of Southland dairy companies in Invercargill on Wednesday, which is of especial interest in view of the result of the dairy pool poll. Speaking of dairy control, Sir Thomas said: "I am not going into the merits ,or demerits of such a board. You, as producers, have to decide your own fate and your own destiny for some time in that respect, yet it is perhaps right to state that marketing is quite a different commercial proposition from producing, and, if you attempted to interfere with a highly organised machine like Tooley Street, which has been in existence for over 50 years, and which has the British consuming trade at its fingers' ends, it is perhaps very difficult for an organisation to begin to think of exercising control in the sense of selling your produce at the other end. My own view is that, if the organisation already set up in the nature of the Marketing Association were allowed to grow and develop on the lines so well begun it might eventually arrive at a point where the produce may be controlled co-operatively from the producer to the point, of actual sale to the consumer. In that way there would be no danger at any point that the producer could be exploited, but that he would get full value for his commodity, and in that process the consumer would not lie placed at any disadvantage from this point ,of view. In the Marketing Association you have the assurance that your product is honestly and honourably dealt with. You as co-operative producers associated at the other end with a similar wholesale organisation are naturally out for the best possible return for your commodity, while the consumer, on the other hand, asks for a fair deal, and there is no reason why justice to each may not be afforded and equity given to each by some such arrangement as has been suggested. EFFECT OF CONTROL BOARD.

"It seems to me that you have your difficulties and your trials. You are attempting to set up this Control Board, in order to arrest any manipulation of your products that may arise wben they get to London. While you are looking to the London end for a good deal of reform, which may or may not be necessary, there is a good deal which, by your cooperative effort, you may accomplish for yourselves at Home, without asking anybody to do it for you. I have bad a good deal of experience in business matters, and, as a thoughtful business man. I have come to the conclusion that the less any enterprise asks for Government assistance the better ultimately that enterprise will be, because whatever artificial aids may be asked of the Government for the time being, ultimately the cost of that artificial assistance rendered will come back to the people themselves for payment." SHIPPING AND RAILWAYS. After referring to the banking system of New Zealand, Sir Thomas passed to the need for the curtailment of shipping chorges. Of the £16,000,000 worth of products sent to Britain, they cost £300,000 by the time they got to the ship, which was, roughly, 8s per cwt of cheese and 16s per box of butter, "Let Tooley Street have its reform if you like," he said, "but remember the reforms which lie at your own door. If you can do so by remedying these matters, and without increasing the cost to the consumer, get the benefit for yourselves by systematic methods. Then again, you have the railways, which are a national institution, and should be utilised for the carriage of your goods to main ports, while a system of coastal refrigerated traffite could give much needed relief to the present costly methods. A TEMPTATION.

"You have been ;tempted lately," said Sir Thomas, "to put your cheese out for the next month or two because of certain offers, and since I have been' here I have seen certain buyers either preceding us or following us on our tour. But, if you want to adopt the co-operative principle, you must be consistent all the way through. I do not want to labour the point, but if you have faith in cooperative development and growth for your ultimate redemption, as opposed to individual effort, then place all your confidence in it and be one always. It is no use being a supporter of co-operation for a few months and then sending your produce forward individually."