ABSOLUTE CONTROL.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 28 February 1929, Page 5

ABSOLUTE CONTROL.

FRUIT BOARD STAYS APPLE SHIPMENT. IMPEDING PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. (Our Own Correspondent). WELLINGTON, Feb. 26. The diplomatic intervention of the Prime Minister in the controversy between the Fruit Control Board and a large firm of exporters that wished to open the German market to New Zealand fruit, failed to bring the parties to an amicable agreement. The firm had arranged to send 30 or 40 thousand boxes of apples to Hamburg. It was advised by a competent legal authority that owing to the omission of some formality that should have been observedlby the Fruit Board it would oe within its rights in making these shipments. The Board, however, did not accept this interpretation of the position and positively renised to allow the first instalment ol the definitely arranged shipment to proceed farther than Wellington. It is stated that in these circumstances the would-be shipper sought further legal advice and again was assured that he was within his rights. But the Board remained obdurate.

A DANIEL TO JUDGMENT. At this stage, in the absence of the Minister of Agriculture, the firm obtained an interview with the Prime Minister, urging that if the fruit were held up in Wellington for any length of time its market would be lost. Sir Joseph M’ard, while sympathesmg with the shippers, explained that he could not over-ride the authority Parliament had conferred upon the Board. Any attempt of the kind would be highly improper. In the circumstances, however, he was prepared to suggest that, as a nice legal point was involved, It would be a reasonable arrangement for the Board to take charge of the apples on their way to Hamburg and leave the question of control to be determined there by the decision of the New Zealand Court to which, he understood it had been referred. More than this he could not think of doing in view of the existing legislation. The firm was prepared to accept this arrangement and Sir Joseph communicated with the Board forthwith.

SMART BUSINESS. It is now understood that the Board has definitely decided to enforce its powers of control, holding that its authority is fully established by the law, and that it has communicated its decision to the Prime Minister. This being the case there is not much more that can be said about the matter, m view of the appeal that is being made to the law courts; but that the Fruit Control Board is not without some measure of enterprise may be judged from the fact that it has opened negotiations with both the Qerman houses with which the export fi’rih had established trading relations. '7 It is reported that it has secured an order from the buyers with whom. .the export firm was negotiating and that it is offering supplies to tne buyers ijith whom the firm had concluded a contract. There is no great fault to find with enterprise of this kind, when business is concerned, but the acceptance of Sir Joseph Ward’s suggestion would have appeared more chivalrous.

THE BOARD’S ATTITUDE. The Board’s official justification for its refusal to allow the shipment was that It had arranged to send an experimental shipment to that port itself, and that it feared the dispatch of such a large shipment as the one proposed would not only prejudice its own venture, but would also weaken the London market. The. latest development in the matter is a rumor to the effect that the Fruit Board has omitted to take the necessary formal steps to establish its power of control. The story seems almost ;ncr<»lible in view of the fact that the Board has been exercising its assumed authority for three seasons, but it is given impressive color by the fact that several independent sales for European ports were made recently. CONTROL IN GENERAL. With the advent of a new Government, pledged to put a stop to tiie growth of State interference with private enterprise, it is not unlikely that the despotic powers of the Fruit Board and similar bodies will lie very materially revised during the life of the present Parliament. Sir Joseph Ward in addressing a deputation some 100 strong from the Nineteen TwentyEignt Committee last week, without disclosing in any detail the intentions of the Government in this respect, left the gathering with the impression that the indiscriminate trading of both the State and its subsidiary bodies would have to be drastically revised. As the new official Opposition is in close accord with the Government on. this subject, the ex-

trcme Socialists—if there are any su.fr vivors of this cult in the new House — will have little chance of staying the progress of much needed reform. In the process of placing the affairs of the Dominion upon a sound basis it will be strange if “Absolute Control''’ does not receive particular attention..