N.Z. BUTTER.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18364, 23 April 1925, Page 9

N.Z. BUTTER.

HIGHER TARIFF WANTED.

AMERICAN FARMERS' PETITION

CABLE— PBZSS ASSOCIATION—COPTBIOHT j (AUSTBALUN AND X.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received April 22nd, 7.13 p.m.)

WASHINGTON, April 21

Declaring that tlie cost of producing butter in Denmark, New Zealand and Australia is greatly below production costs in the United States, which averages between 50.7 and 61.5 cents per lb, the American Farm Bureau Association hag petitioned the Federal Tariff Commission to recommend Mr Coolidge to raise the tariff on butter from eight to twelve cents per lb. The Association alleges that New Zealand is potentially a greater competitor than Denmark, the latter probably having reached its maximum production, while in New Zealand production has increased practiyears, and is likely to be doubled in the next decade. The Association statement declares that Denmark and New Zealand are in a position to dump butter on to the American market with impunity. The vast amount of storage butter in the United States has been consumed, and the country now i 3 down to a normal basis with a much better prospect of the American farmer getting the cost of production for his butter-fat. The United States output of this commodity, however, will \decrease rapidly unless more adequate protection is afforded. Professor Mackin, of tho University of Wisconsin, testifying before the Tariff Commission, said ho spent three months in New Zealand in 1924 studying dairying methods, and he was convinced that butter producers there were far ahead of Americans in the matter of modern methods of producing and business arrangements, therefore they wero able to make butter at a lower cost thau was possible in the United States,

President Munn, of the National Dairy Council, testified that although the United States produced annually 2,000,000,0001b of butter, the importation of 25,000,0001b had been sufficient to break the domestic market at various times from five to 17 cents per lb.