"SIMPLY AN OCTOPUS."

Waipa Post, Volume 39, Issue 3086, 7 December 1929, Page 8

"SIMPLY AN OCTOPUS."

MEAT BOARD DENOUNCED

(By Telegraph. Press Association.) HAWERA, Friday.

" The Meat Export Board is simply an octopus feeding upon the farmers. It collects a lot of money, but does little beyond a small amount of advertising," said Mr C. D. Dickie, chairman of the Patea Freezing Company, and a member of the South Taranaki provincial executive of the Farmers' Union, when speaking at a meeting of that body this morning. " The board is run by a few Canterbury sheep farmers and the Canterbury A. &. P. Association," he added. "It has an office in Wellington, which serves little purpose beyond the issue of a few statistics that arc valueless to producers here, but which might possibly be of some interest to Home buyers. The board is not in touch with .meat producers' interest, as is the Dairy Board with dairy farmers' matters, and its constitution seems only a good opportunity for a few to draw big salaries and fees out of the £35,000 the board receives in levies." Mr Dickie said the Meat Board had purchased a site for cool stores in a useless position on the wrong side of the Thames an amount of £30,000 having been squandered upon it. There was an expensive office at Home, which sent over a few cables containing information that could be obtained from the blackboards at Smithfield markets any Friday. He had made a study of the boards activities during his recent trip Home, and he based his comments upon his observations. Mr Dickie moved a resolution that the executive was opposed to the formation of a Wool Board along the lines of the Meat Board, as suggested by the Dominion Executive of the Farmers' Union. . The motion was carried unanimously.