N.Z. PRODUCTS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18891, 5 January 1927, Page 8

N.Z. PRODUCTS.

ON HOME MARKET. QUEER TRADE PRACTICES. [THE PEESS Special Ssrrlce.] AUCKLAND, January 4. Allegations that New Zealand butter was being retailed on tire Home market bearing the trade marks of Danish and English factories were.made to-day by Mr W. G. Wright, of Auckland, who recently returned from a trip abroad. Mr Wright said he spent four months in London, and although he was careful to make enquiries for New Zealand butter, he found it in only one shop. The butter exported from New Zealand was going somewhere, and he took steps to ascertain where it went. Many shopkeepers said they had stocked New Zealand butter once, but did not take it a second time owing to its high price. One retailer showed him stocks of butter in his shop bearing the mark of a Devonshire factory. This factory was handling the milk of 50 cows, yet it sent 50 tons of butter a week to the London market. Mr Wright said he was informed that New Zealand butter was sent to the factory in bulk, made up into pound pats, and retailed at about 4d a pound more than New Zealand butter offered for direct sale. The same thing was done by Denmark, he said. Information he obtained showed that hundreds of tons of New Zealand butter went to Denmark and were sent back to England as Danish produce. It seemed hardly fair that New Zealand producers should be denied the benefits of high prices on account of these practices. He was of opinion that were New Zealand butter exported in pound pats the sales would be doubled. _ New Zealand cheese was treated in the same way, Mr Wright said. He was shown cheese which was selling as a fancy brand, yet it had merely been cut into square blocks after being unpacked and sent to the retailer .under another name. Butchers told him they could not sell New Zealand beef as it was supposed to shrink when cooked. Outside Smithfield it was impossible to find New Zealand beef. Where it went to remained a mystery. He had actually seen lamb being sold as prime Canterbury, yet it bore the Westfield tags.