THE DAIRY CONTROVERSY

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1641, 14 May 1925, Page 7

THE DAIRY CONTROVERSY

The discussion of the decision of the Dairy Produce Export Control Board to assume absolute control of all butter exported from New Zealand after Ist August of next year is beginning to interest a widening circle. The first impression of the public was that only the producers and the merchants who handled part of their produce were concerned in the matter, and that if the producers had chosen to put their necks into the compulsion noose it was their own business, and if the merchants were threatened with loss of commissions and other pickings they simply ; were suffering one of the reverses of commercial welfare. But a closer examination of the points at issue has disclosed some ratlher disconcerting facts. Among other things, it has been discovered that only about forty per cent of the factory suppliers, to whom the Bill embodying the principle of compulsion was submitted, voted for its confirmation, and that fewer than 25 per cent of the same electors voted for the Board that decided to bring the principle into operation. Further, it is admitted that the 'Board is unable to make any arrangement for carrying on the producers who have heen dependent upon the merchants for their finance, and that it has so far no assurance that it will be able to obtain adequate advances for the producers upon their commandeered butter and cheese. In the circumstances it looks as if the Dairy Produce Export Control Act will have to come before Parliament again before it can be made fully, operative, and in that case it could scarcely escape a rough handling.—Manawatu Times.