The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1923. DAIRY CONTROL BOARD.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1424, 8 November 1923, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER DAIRY CONTROL BOARD.

A NEAT point was advanced during a discussion at the local saleyards last -Saturday when one district farmer pertinently asked his fellow producers if they could follow the reasoning of a Cabinet Minister who is a member of a political party professing democratic principles and who expects a candidate for election to the Dairy Produce Control Board to conduct a campaign over the whole of the North Island in from three to five weeks? He went on to explain that that was the attitude taken up by the present Minister for Agriculture, who has decreed that the nominations close on the 22nd inst., and the election shall take place exactly three weeks later. The fact that the whole of the North Island comprises what might be termed one ward only must make it extremely difficult for a candidate to conduct a campaign in the limited time available. If there is going to be no campaigning there must be an absence of the democratic' principle, and such will tend to nullify or restrict the good results that are expected to come from the application of control in the export of this Dominion’s huge and increasing production of butter and cheese. The Minister for Agriculture is, or was, a farmer himself, and therefore he can realise that there are only certain hours in the day that farmers can be expected to attend meetings. Therefore any candidate would have difficulty in addressing more than three meetings each day. This would preclude his effectively covering the whole of the North Island in the limited time available. Politicians themselves when seeking Parliamentary honours for a very much smaller constituency expect from six to twelve weeks for this undertaking. The third session of a Parliament is invariably shamelessly rushed in its final stages in an endeavour by sitting members to get back to their constituencies with all possible haste so as to conduct their campaign in every centre where fifty or more votes may be expected. Then why the very short space of time before the election of the Dairy Produce Control Board? Was it another example of slipshod legislation in the dying hours of a session, or was the time deliberately restricted so as to give the members of the Dairy Council an advantage over all other candidates? The recent poll on the enforcement of the Dairy Control Act was small enough in all conscience, when over 43 per cent, -of the producers failed to record their votes. This percentage will, of a surety, be very greatly exceeded in the forthcoming poll, for it is patent that if a dairyman in, say, the KohukohU or Wharepuhunga districts is expected to record a selection from a list of candidates including residents of Martinborough, Aongatete, Parewanui, Omapere and Te Roti, he will be more likely to tear up or burn the ballot paper than to fill it in intelligibly. Many dairymen in the Wellington Province have only heard of one man in the dairying world of the Auckland Province —and that man is Mr Goodfellow, whose name has been quoted all over the Dominion in connection with all sorts of arguments—good, bad and indifferent—associated with the dairy industry. Mr Grounds, of the Far North, was practically unknown outside his own immediate district until a year or so ago, and is not yet universally known in the North Island. Mr Motion, as chairman of the N.Z. Dairy Co. directorate, is known by name to probably all of his firm’s suppliers, but there are scores of them who have not even seen him. What of the dairymen in the South Wairarapa or Hawke’s Bay? Do they know Mr Grounds or Mr Motion? Assuredly no. Then why should they be expected to vote for those gentlemen without having an opportunity of learning something about them? Of course, we only quote those *p.mes as examples. All other candidates and possible candidates v are similarly situated. The whole thing seems to have been "messed up,” or else it was designed to give a tremendous advantage to candidates from the Dairy Council. The ward system has many advantages and some disadvantages, but for-the purposes of election it is to be preferred to the present method, which is but a sorry product of hasty legislation. Of the choosing of suitable representatives on the Dairy Control Board we will have something more to say in later issues.