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1949 NEW ZEALAND

MARKETING DEPARTMENT REPORT AND STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th SEPTEMBER, 1948

Presented to Both Houses of the General Assembly Pursuant to the Provisions of ■the Marketing Act, 1936

Sir, — Marketing Department. I have the honour to present herewith, pursuant to the provisions of the Marketing Act, 1936, the annual report of the operations and statement of accounts of the Marketing Department for the year ended 30th September, 1948. I have, &c., L. C. Webb, Director of Marketing. The Hon. the Minister of Marketing. INTRODUCTORY In the past it has been customary to relate the annual report strictly to the year covered by the accounts appended. However, certain fundamental changes have taken place in marketing organization, and it is considered that these should be described fully, even though some of the adjustments took place after the end of the finanical year. This preliminary section will outline these events, and the rest of the report, other than that relating to town milk, will refer strictly to the financial year ended 30th September, 1948. The section on town-milk operations has been continued on the basis of the production season and is for the year ended 31st August, 1948. This keeps it in line with past reports. Since the last annual report the Department has been reorganized. The Dairy Products Marketing Commission set up by statute in July, 1947, decided to carry out its activities with its own staff, a large part of which was taken over from the Export Division of the Marketing Department. This left the Export Division reduced in function and in staff. Up to this time the Marketing Department had existed in name only since each of its three Divisions —Internal Marketing, Export Marketing, and -Milk Marketing—had its own statutory powers, dealt directly with the Minister of Marketing, and in effect was a separate organization. Opportunity was now taken to bring the Divisions under unified management. The separate Divisions have been abolished by the Marketing Amendment Act, 1948, and their functions transferred to a single Marketing Department. ' The change has made possible certain important economies. In the case of staffing .and records, the units of the former Internal Marketing Division were able to take over the extra work without expansion. The bringing-in of the Milk Division made an increase in the accounting unit necessary since the milk accounting work was in arrears.