HIDES CONTROL

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21041, 17 February 1940, Page 10

HIDES CONTROL

PROTEST ENDORSED DAIRY INDUSTRY COUNCIL "OBNOXIOUS PRINCIPLE” (By Telegraph.—Pres3 Association) WELLINGTON, Friday A strong protest against Government control of hides, as recently announced, has been made by the Dairy Industry Council, which represents all bodies connected with the dairy industry. A letter has been forwarded by the council to the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash. "The Dairy Industry Council, at a meeting today,” says the letter, "gave full consideration to the result of your decision that the Government should take over the marketing of hides, and endorsed in its entirety the emphatic protest made by the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. The council is particularly perturbed at your decision, in view of the assurance you gave soon after the outbreak of war that the Government would not control commodities which were not purchased by the United Kingdom Government. "The council is concerned not only with the hides position, but with the obnoxious principle brought into effect, under which one section of the community, the farmers, is called upon to subsidise local industries and consumers. The council feels that the military and New Zealand requirements of hides could have been simply and satisfactorily met without Government control being imposed. “If this principle of local consumers being subsidised at the expense of the farming community is to become part of the Government policy, widespread dissatisfaction within the farming industry will be intensified and production will be affected.”