FALL IN BUTTER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 860, 5 July 1910, Page 8

FALL IN BUTTER.

PRICE BACK .TO A SHILLING. ' AN UNEXPECTED DECREASE. Within ten days the retail pric-o of butttcr in Wellington has unexpectedly fallen twopence per pound. Tho decline is not expected to last long, but while it exists it means a saving on that one article of at least a week to tho Wellington consumers. Butter reaches tho public of the city somewhat indirectly. Tho winter supply is bought by the merchants in the autumn and stored for the months when very JLittlo is being produced on tho dairy tfarnis. The retailing grocers purchase 'rfrom the merchants and sell to Ihe. consumers at im advance of about lid. For, some tune there existed among tho merchants of Wellington what was known ;as the butter committee. Objects of tho jconiniUtue, according to olio ul its meiu'•■bers, were to quote prices in accordance with the conditions- of the market, and jo quote uniform priccs. Ton days ago the merchants were quoting 121 d., less '2J- per cent, discount, which was equal to. 12 3-16 d. The stores were selling tho product at Is. 2d. at thai time. Then tho merchants lowered their, quotation to Ukl. net, which enabled Itho next to handle it to dispose of it at Is. Id. On .Saturday last the holders of .'the supplies dropped the price lo met, and the public are now, lor the first . itime ill about ten years, getting their Abutter at a shilling a pound. One who was a member of the now. defunct Butter-Committee stated' that" the' ;Teason lof the decreast) in the wholesale price is that there was a split in the Tanks of the committee, and • tho' local dealers are now tompeting with onc'&n■othcr for the trade. The cause of the eplit, he said, wn.» that several gutter merchants had been operating outside the ••committee, which, therefore, forced the situation that there was P" oWcd the committeo coniinuing. En was asked if he expected the- pri«a to keep down-tor jlong, ami replied that that was impossible to state, but there was 110 indication »f a ri'.vivnl uf Iho Butter Committee. . The present price in Wellington is much lower than the prices ruling in the other cities,. where, the figure is from Is. 2cl. /to Is. 3d. retail. The last Auckland quotation known in Wellington is Is. lid., :lcss 5 per cent, wholesalo, which indicates that the retail price is about Is. 2id. Tho usual price of butter in the winter iliere is from Is.- Id. to Is. 2d., and it ■sometimes goes to Is. 3d. The merchants ;«nd the retailers declare that Is. is not in "legitimate" price in the present winj'ter. There was one retailer- selling at f 3s. wlien the wholesale price. was llJil.. About.ton years ago there was an arrangement whereby the retailers were table to sell all the year round at Is. 3>er pound, which was really a convenient medium between about lOd. in the ■cheaper months and about Is. 2d. in the dearer season. Every year the difference in the summer and the winter prices is lessening, in the future it will -probably be slight, except when there is O shortage of supply. _ Most of the. butter retailed -in .Welflington is obtained through the wholesale stores, only a small quantity coming direct to the retailers from the dairy companies. The retailers were surprised when the fall was announced, and explain .that in'one way some of them to lose through it. They had-pur-chased ahead at; a certain figure, reckoning on Is. 2d. being the winter price. Consequently, they paid a price which "was Tjased ,on a'calculation that their receipts would, be! 2d. per ' pound greater •than the. present price permits them to" be. The retailers reckon that Is. is a clear lid. ai«ponnd lower than, theisvoitK of the butter.' "It is probable," Sam'tlie' head of a firm which does a very .retail butter, trade, "that .this week wfll " «* a 4 'rise." : The storekeepers are unable to advance any theory -as the probable object of ihe merchants in bringing down the .price. "It is too early," said one, "for ;& 'funk/ and, if"" it was o;i!y a matter iof quitting, the. price would be lowered more gradually, and probably not dropped to a shilling at ail." It is not.easy to say what profit is being made by the dealers who fill their etores iform > their own factories, but (the retailers reckon that the merchants : who were obtaining their supplies froni jeoparately-owned manufacturing concerns iwere netting less than one penny per [pound for. handling-the produce.: , Supposing that 30,000 pounds of butter lis the quantity used in Wellington everv ( week, the consumers a whole are afjTeady ,£250 in pocket (a week at a reducjtion of one penny, and a half a week at ,a reduction of twopence); and every 'week the figure stays a.t one shilling tlioy twill save ;£250, compared wifh the usual 'winter price.