THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1216, 26 August 1911, Page 14

THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

Sir,—Will, you kindly tell a'suffering parent—who cannot quite keep pace with all the. tricks and tho manners of- many things—how long the union's price of butter is going to remain where it now is, especially in faco of the fact that all through tho winter there lias been no shortage of supply iii tlio Dominion, neither any diminution in the winter supply to the factories—any more than any past winter—nor has tho price of butter been any higher in the Home markets than in the past—also, in face of tho fact that the farmers have not reaped any beniit, nor are they getting any substantial advance in tho price o.f their butter-fat, nor, again, in face 'of tho fact that half the cows are already in, yet wo are paying from Id. to 5(1. per lb. more (retail) for bnttcr than ever we have paid before—and milk is still at the same old price. Surely, sir, this is a question for Parliament to at once inquire into; or are we to repeat the state of unrest now prevailing in the Old Country—because oppression by the moneyed class is a largo factor in 'the strikes at Home, and the butter ring in tho Dominion is but another phase of the same cancer. If the Government in the Commonwealth is so active in figuring against rings and trusts, why is our Government asleep, or blind, to the meat and butter ring in tho Dominion that is preventing tho poor working man from being able to have butter for Ms children's bread, and a little meat now and then? _ < ' There is another HtHo ring that ought to be burst up, and that is the fish ring. Tho idea, of going to 'n fish shop with a paltry sixpence is onlv to be laughed at to-day—nothing less than a shilling will buy a few fish for a moderate family's team, and yet the supply of fish is greater.

to-day than oven in the past history of New Zealand. So long as tho thing is tolerated by those who have the power to protect lis, so long will tho evil extend. It is so easy to put tho prices of the necessaries of life up, 3"ct terribly hard to get them down again. Fancy butter Is. Gd. per lb., and paid lOd. in New Zealand. It is simply a monstrous iniquity—l am, etc., PATERFAMILIAS. p_g;_jf the grocers were to combine (as tho butchers and butter-sellers have) and put JO per cent, on tho ordinary groceries, it would mean that in a very short time New Zealand would be denuded of a. third of its imputation, because an ordinary working" man could not possibly live—his family would be half starved—l am, etc.,