THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, 14th JUNE, 1932. PLEA FOR CO-ORDINATION.

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3190, 14 June 1932, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, 14th JUNE, 1932. PLEA FOR CO-ORDINATION.

WITH the arrangement of the creamcartage contracts for the next dairying season it would be interesting to discover whether, and to what extent, the dairy companies have succeeded in eliminating the traffic duplication along secondary roads, and even of the arterial roads, of this district. The question has alarmed those who are charged with the responsibility of maintaining the roads, so much so that several conferences have been held to acquaint the road users of the position and to plead the necessity for some form of co-ordination which would remove the unnecessary traffic. There has been a general recognition of the evil and an almost' equally general desire for its removal. But opinions differ when it comes to the processes enabling more concentrated or co-ordinated traffic. It may be that our dairy companies—and they are by no means singular in this respect—speak with two voices. One voice they a*eserve for the eloquent speeches at the conference; the other they employ in the practical business of commercial diplomacy. All will plead the need for more economised transport; yet all, in the practical sense, adhere to the jealous preservation of their individuality. The roads, however, remain at the mercy of rival interests, no matter how eloquent the conferences may have been or how the theoretical arguments for co-ordination have inspired hopes and confidence in the ability and in the desire of those who lead the industry to relieve the taxpayer from a burdensome cost of traffic maintenance. Dairying interests are separated decidedly into different camps, each holding tenaciously to a separate individuality. It would be folly to blame one or the other for the troubles of the past. The New Zealand Dairy Company has claimed as the only real solution a re-constitution of companies, with defined areas for milk supplies; the lesser companies refuse any such suggestion, and express a desire to share in any reasonably designed system of traffic-sharing. In the discussion arise those manifold feelings which engender distrust and suspicion on both sides. Meanwhile the local bodies, as trustees for the very people who must finally foot the bill for damage caused by their own out-of-hand traffic demands, can do little more than strive for some common ground on which rival interests can be drawn together. They see that, without the New Zealand Dairy Company, and without the willing support of the New Zealand Dairy Company, nothing effective may be accomplished in the direction of mileage economy. The company, however, feels that it can act with independence. It exerts its rights and its influence over the whole process of adjustment. Obviously, however, any big company has responsibilities as well as privileges; it has not only rights, but duties, for with power goes opportunity. The keys to the immediate problems are in the hands of the bigger company, particularly remembering that the smaller concerns have expressed a desire for some system of co-ordination. It will be a pity —rather, it will serve as a reproach—if another season is allowed to pass with the burden of unnecessary cost remaining. Now is the time for action, as soon the arrangements far the coming season will have been made. Is the dairy industry incapable of securing advantages which, on every hand, are admitted to be necessary ? Is leadership really a quality belonging to a period of the remote past ? Have feelings of vested interest or sectional privilege been allowed to dwarf every consideration, even to the degree that economy must be sacrificed at the altar of sectional bigotry ? 'Surely the general trend of business is forcing the abandonment of costly sectionalism. The future is not to people or companies that can boast their independence, but to those who realise in time that interdependence is not a foolish word drawn from the ideological vocabulary, but is a sheer hard necessity of the modern world. In all things, as affecting communities and even companies, interdependent arrangements are urgent. iThe appeal is to no solitary individual /or interest. It is an appeal to common sense and reason. Finding the blaime here or claiming the virtue there will not help -a scrap. Mistakes, arising out of partisanship or bitter sectionalism in the past, there unquestionably have been, and this costly traffic duplication is an apparent (blunder. It.is not a time for judicial

inquiry to lay the blame here or there. Inquiry can only serve to engender fiurther distrust. The smallest knowledge of dairying psychology should bid us all beware of trying to isolate any one company or section; of hectoring them, or preaching at them. But it is indeed to be trusted that in the coming year there will be a general appreciation of the vital necessity of relinquishing purely sectional and antagonistic policies in favour of an interdependent action, in conformity with the recognised needs of the case. If the approach is made with sincerity, then it may be not unreasonable to assume that in this and in countless other directions relics of a past era of needless extravagance will be surely swept on one side.