Special Charges On Milk Denied

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30979, 8 February 1966, Page 16

Special Charges On Milk Denied

The supervising officer of the Christchurch Milk Board (Mr A. P. Millthorpe) denied yesterday that milk vendors had to pay special charges for excess gallonage.

He said that vendors had to pay a ruling goodwill rate of £l2 a gallon for which they were fully reimbursed if they sold their round. His statement was in reply to a letter from the New Zealand Milk Board, which said it was fairly common practice for milk authorities to charge vendors at the rate of Id a gallon for milk in excess of specified gallonages, for trade run on temporary licences or for rounds otherwise leased from such authorities. Labour Return It was evident, the letter said, from a survey of milk vending costs and conditions that payment of high lease

costs on milk rounds was in many instances preventing vendors from obtaining the labour return allowed for the average round. The letter said that a lease charge of Id a gallon was equivalent to an interest rate of about 12 per cent on trade valued at the maximum goodwill rate of £l2 a gallon and was hard to justify. The New Zealand Milk Board considered that jd a gallon was much more moderate. It was desirable that, as far as possible, milk authorities should adopt a common policy and keep charges to a maximum of jd a gallon for retail milk and .2d a gallon for wholesale milk.