THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3555, 8 December 1934, Page 7

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

DOMINION CONFERENCE NEXT WEEK WARD DELEGATES TO CONSIDER REMITS. Delegates appointed by the dairy industry at the. ward conferences held throughout the Dominion during the past few weeks will meet in Wellington for a national conference next Thursday, when consideration will be given to the remits passed at these meetings. A large number of them relate to the Agriculture (Emergency Powers) Act giving effect to some of the more important recommendations of the Dairy Industry Commission, including the establishment of an Executive Commission of Agriculture and the reconstitution of the Dairy Produce Board.

Remits have also been passed urging district relief for the dairy farmer, both by way of subsidy and reductions in the costs of production. There are a number of remits dealing with subjects such as marketing regulations, margarine manufacture, local and export marketing, planned production, the quota, and scientific research. With the exception of requests for minor modifications, the first instalment of the Government's legislative proposals for the rehabilitation of the dairying industry, as embodied in the Agricultural (Emergency Powers) Bill recently passed by Parliament, has met with general approval at the ward conferences held in the South Island. To a great extent the same is true of meetings held in the Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay, Poverty Bay, Bay of Plenty and Manawatu, although in these districts more emphasis was placed on the need for immediate and direct financial assistance. At a meeting of producers held at Stratford under the auspices of the Taranaki Federation, the views expressed were very divided, but at the subsequent ward conferences at Hawera and New Plymouth the Government's proposals had a more favourable reception. • The attitude adopted in the North Auckland, South Auckland, and Waikato districts was in striking contrast to that in the southern districts. There the proposals in the Act were condemned in their entirety. It was considered significant that at several of these meetings the resolutions were put forward by members of the Auckland Farmers' Union. A typical remit was that passed at Hamilton," where the meeting demanded the repeal of the Agricultural (Emergency Powers) Act, on the ground that it placed the dairy industry under bureaucratic control, and also demanded that the industry have the right to control its own destiny through it's own elected representatives. Similar remits were passed af'Pukekohe and Whangarei.

These northern meetings also passed remits requesting relief by way of subsidy. The Whangarei meeting considered the Government should provide a subsidy to cover running costs of the average dairy farmer and to provide for him a reasonable standard of living, this relief to apply from the commencement of the present season. Immediate temporary relief to the extent of a guaranteed payable price for butter fat was urged by the Pukekohe and Hamilton meetings. Reductions were also sought in rural rating, hospital rating and import duties.