ABSTRACT
A feature of the "National" Government's Protectionist policy has been the adoption and extension of the quota system. These quotas were designed to give the farmer Protection. If other industries were to receive Protection, why not agriculture? The tariffs that had been imposed on manufactured articles, raw materials, and feeding-stuffs had not helped the farmer: they had handicapped them. Something had to be done about it. Quotas are designed to force prices up by creating artificial scarcity. But wherever this policy had been put into operation—and it had been widely tried in recent years in other countries—consumption had declined. The Wheat Act was the Government's first effort to grant Protection by indirect means. They were followed by a succession of Acts regulating supplies of such important foodstuffs as bacon, meat, milk, potatoes, and fish. A Marketing Board was established to draw up a workable scheme of regulation.
