WANGANUI’S PORT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 380, 25 September 1930, Page 6

WANGANUI’S PORT

FARMERS AND CONTROL BOARD

RESOLUTION OF PROTEST A unanimous resolution of protest a the action of the Dairy Produce Contro, Board in restricting factories from shij ping produce through the port of Wan ganui was carried at a meeting of th< Wanganui Provincial Executive of th< Farmers’ Union yesterday. “This is the most drastic thing thal has ever been faced in Wanganui,’ said Mr T- W. Howie (Fordell). Ho wai of opinion that the Dairy Board as ai present constituted should be done awaj with. Mr B. ©awes (Westmere): I thinl that is a drastic resolution. Mr Howie: I am just putting it as 1 see it. I am speaking as a dairy farmer and I want to get as much out ol rriy produce as possible. The chairman (Mr T. Currie, Brunswick) and Mr T. Alexander (Maxwell) field that the Union should back up the protest against the treatment meted out to the port. Mr A. L. Elmslie (Waverley) contend, ed that the day of centralisation was at hand. Mr A. P. Melville (Fordell) concurred, Re was of opinion that cheaper freights would materialise if the overseas boats were stopped from tramping round the coastal ports. Mr T. W. Howie; If this district is going to get any benefit out of the port at all wc should help those who are trying to get it. Mr Elmslie: It is the writing on the wall. Mr I. Brandon (Okoia) said that one important aspect relating to the centralisation of grading stores had not been touched on. It was essential that graders should be as closely in touch with the factories as possible. If centralisation camo then the grading pointt would be too far away. Any defects detected in produce would not be rectified so quickly ns was the case with coastal grading ports in operation. That might mean a matter of a halfpenny to a penny a pound in butter, totalling to millions in a year. 4 ‘That is one of the greatest arguments against the centralisation of grading stores/’ said the speakerThe meeting carried the following re l solution: .“That this meeting of the provincial executive of the Wanganui branch of the Farmers’ Union enter an emphatic protest against the action of the Dairy Control Board in restricting the right of dairy companies in shipping their produo* through the Port of Wanganui.”