THE RISE IN PRICE OF BUTTER AND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 106, 28 January 1908, Page 4

THE RISE IN PRICE OF BUTTER AND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION.

Sir,—Your roportcr interviewed tho sellers of butter, nnd lias produced a most interesting column ; but your roportcr did not consult All3—tho- consumor. I want you to lot me havo my say. I say there is no justification for such rise. The falling-oil' in butter in New Zealand after all is very slight— at any moment the rain may came. It is true, the output of butter in Hinvko's Bay and Wairarapa is lessened, hut they are small suppliers in good seasons, hut the output, for \eu* Zealand this season is enormous—-see-what quantities the steamers aro taking to London. Again, tho wholesale people are not giving more for butter -than they were on September 1. The farmers of this island aro not-getting one farthing more for butter— they have made contracts for the entire season. Who gets the 2d. rise which I, tho consumer nay?, The butter dealers. If they raise the price again, they will pay no more for butter this season, hut all the extra money they drag out of us will go into their pockets. A butter exporter says New Zealand butter is retailed in London at Is. 2d. —the same price as here. 1 want to point out thjs—the New Zealand butter merchant who ships butter to London to lie retailed at Is. 2d. pays on it freight, insurance and other

charges j when .ho sells here lie puts .these things into Jus pockets .and ' profits. '/ AVliv should thisi, go into his pockets .'and' ho dragged out of ours? .Our incomes vary fioin £1 10s;: a week upwards; 2d. per pound out ot our- pockets is a/dreadful tax. t The exportoi gotn lljd.: for lns butter in' London, and makes; a;' profit; what a big- extra profit ho got r>,by .Boiling tho same butter hero at Is.) PJd. Again. I:ask why, tho farmer no more? . ..v.. ... .• • I try to look .at*.it dispassionately, and see tho question -from- both sides. .Thp-v-mer-chiinfc pays no .iiioro. for his butter, whv should. I. and tho thousands of families pay .more,to enrich him? > Look, at the. enormous shipments of butter bomg sent to England— it;, 5 per cent.; qf it were -kept 'back- there would he aliundanco • for all of'us nt-last month's prices. I. seo no reason for this rise, and.-'.for a :threatened further rise.: I sqe, onu man you:interviewed-talks-of-a iriso in wages—tho ;old .old. bogy. ; I nsk—Aro wages in the butter' trade: higher than'they were, in. Dceomber? - . t l'lie constant steady riso m the necessities of ;ljfo arc,-, steadily, - impoverishing people with small means. Tho Boilers, aro few, tho buyors, many. The consumers are like Issaclmr—an ass crouching beneath his burden—and they bear.it all so patiently, l so dumbly. . 1f,., Sir Joseph "Ward, instead of oterlially boasting of our resources, wero to try to,keep his family. On a> fixed salary of £3 per week," he would not 1 look on. things with so rosy an eye. Is it not a fact,' Mr. .Editor,', that wo all of us have to give.our wives more: and --more each year to pay household bills; and that many of us simply cannot lay by for a ramy day?-—I 1 am; ;etc., , UNHAPPY CONSUMER-.; •' January 2". .5;