WHY BUTTER FELL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1077, 16 March 1911, Page 8

WHY BUTTER FELL.

MANIPULATION ALLEGED. The London correspondent of an Australian rarer offers the following explanation of why colonial butters dropped in price on the.London market. His letteris dated February 3,—"Tho fact tliat the market rates for A.ustrnlinn awl New Zealand butter dropped again last week to the extent of. is. to (is. per civt. confirms the.explanation which I sent in my last letter of the rise which had. been previously recorded—a rise evidently tho. result of a manipulation of the market by' the multiple shop companies, who cleared Tooley Sheet floors of tho surplus liutter stocks in order to prevent, tho email shopkeeper from selling 'colonial' butter at Is. per lb. (By the way, it is linderstood that this block of butter is still, in cold, store.) The favourable effect of this largo purchase lasted but a week, and last week a. reaction took place, when the. mark?t was. .restored to tho normal conditions of supply and demand. This week, under the influence of a spurt of genuine trade, there has been a recovery nf about 2s. in Australasian butter, and the general idea is that the market level is likely to remain at about; the present rates. The main factor in governing tho present season is the record quantity of butter coming forward from the Commonwealth. During February there will be. an import of some 300,000 boxes, against 106,022 in February, 1910, and, in the absence of some extraordinarily favourable trade developments, tho natural effect of these enhanced shipments on tho English market rates will be to keep Australasian butter at a low price level,'i