I intended to say a word or two on the Second Reading of the Bill but had not the opportunity of doing so, and I should like, Sir, to have an opportunity of saying a few words now. I do not intend to say very much, but I would not like the Bill to pass without entering some sort of protest, or having it go on record in some way that, I think, the officialism that this Bill seems to enshrine is most objectionable to every farmer and, probably, most objectionable to everybody in the State, because it seems to me to perpetuate every sort of officialism and State control, as well as regulation, restriction, and all that sort of thing, and especially because it seems to do away with any personal liberty in the sale or purchase of cattle. It imposes levies on cattle and sheep that are being sold and all that sort of thing, and I believe that the results that will be achieved from the Bill by way of increased consumption of beef, or by way of an increased price, will hardly be commensurate with the amount of liberty that people will lose.
I do not know whether it has occurred to anybody to consider the number of cattle or sheep that will be slaughtered for home consumption as compared with the numbers that are being exported. This Bill has nothing at all to do with the regulation of prices for export or with levies with regard to the export of cattle or sheep. It means that we will have on one side numbers of men who will have to buy cattle at the supposed minimum price. I say "supposed" advisedly because, as we all know, the last Bill that purported to enforce a minimum price failed absolutely to do so, and I think that this Bill must also fail because conditions under this Bill will be, if anything, worse than under the previous Bill, because we will have, on one side, all these men who will be absolutely conscripted as to the method of buying their supplies. They cannot say to the Minister, from whom they are getting their supplies, that they want heavy or big or well-finished cattle. Naturally, they will all want the heavy cattle because, money for weight, these cattle will give them the best results from the point of view of the levy. So that the whole thing seems to me to be a sort of artificial method that is being introduced into the country, and I think it is the duty, at all events of farmers who are intimate with these conditions, like myself, to enter our protest and have it on record that we, at all events, are absolutely opposed to this thing. Every tradition that we know of with regard to free sale and free dealing— and there is not any greater tradition— is being broken up here and there. There is no such thing now as free sale. There is no such thing as personal liberty. All that is being done away with. We know that about £300,000 and more is being levied off the cattle and sheep. The Minister and many others say that that money will come out of the consumer's pocket. Anybody, who knows anything at all about the matter, knows well that, even if it does come out of the consumer's pocket, which I question very much, it will come, in the long run, out of the producer's pocket, and it will not be a very long run either, but, on the contrary, it will be a very short run.
Then, let us take this question of differentiation between the two classes of traders. To my mind, that is an important part of the whole Bill. I mentioned this matter before, but I think that this is a suitable time again to put the question to the Minister as to why there is any differentiation between the two classes of traders —the home traders and the export traders. The two classes will go side by side and I think there will be nothing but evasion of the Act; and, I think, naturally, evasion, because everybody will go in for a sort of self-protection and everybody will try to save themselves from being annihilated economically, and that is what it looks like. We know that the cattle have been annihilated with the hammer or the knife, but now the old training and tradition, as we knew it, has gone, or at least is going. It must be faced that this is not a temporary measure. It looks as if the live stock industry of this country is in the last throes. For instance, there is a crisis arising now. This may not be quite relevant, Sir, but it would be relevant in the matter of the pig-producing business. I refer to the levy of 10/- on pigs for export in an effort to maintain the quota. That quota was lost before the levy was ever instituted. It was lost for many reasons, but I say that, for all of these reasons, I, at all events, want to protest against the passage of this Bill. I am rather sorry that the Bill has been rushed through the House in the manner in which it has been rushed. I have no doubt that the Minister can give reasons for rushing it, but there are certain amendments that I think could be usefully introduced which, bad and all as the Bill is, might serve to improve it. The Bill is taking away personal liberty and breaking up old traditions and I feel that it will by no means give results commensurate with the harm it will do.
