BUTTER UP AGAIN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2570, 18 September 1915, Page 11

BUTTER UP AGAIN

RAISED A PENNY A POUND YESTERDAY. It will be learned with a degree of surprise that butter was raised one penny per lb. as from yesterday. This means an advance from Is. sd. to Is. 6d. per lb. retail'for tho only one : quality that'is now being submitted to the .public. "That there should be a rise in mid-September during a'plenteous season, when the public could with reason anticipate a further fall, is a matter that will .probably call for some attention from 1 the Government, who may be justified in fixing a fair price, as is done in Australia," said a dealer yesterday. "It certainly," he added, "offers some members of the National Government an opportunity 'to justify their criticism .of the hite Government in the matter of food prices." _ Yesterday's rise is attributed to the lively demand at Home. One notice from a butter firm to a retailor reads as follows

"The British' demand for best creamery butter at substantially higher prices than have been ruling locally has caused pur. factories to instruct us to .advance our prices. for tho local market ono penny per lb." / QUESTION IN PARLIAMENT. In the House of Representatives yesterday, Mr. R. Fletcher asked the Prime Minister whether his attention had been drawn to the fact that speculators had raised the price of butter. Tho Prime Minister said he was sorry to hear that the people in the butter trade in Wellington had again raised the price of butter, because he was very strongly of opinion that there was no necessity for. anything of the sort. Butter was now coming into Auckland and Wellington by thousands of boxes, and he had expected a. further decrease in the price of butter rather than an increase. Butter was selling well now in England,'.however, and he thought the price of butter here should be proportionate to'the price in England. He would give the matter his attention, and, if necessary, steps would be taken to prevent exploitation. One Wellington firm in .the butter trade had communicated .with' him that and indicated that they were no parties to the. raising of the price.' Mr. A. H. Hindmarsh said he had been informed 'that the rise in price was being made by the merchants under instructions'from the factories. He therefore objected to any attempt to saddle the blame upon individual merchants when there was evidence that the people to blame were the farmers and factory owners. ' ■ ■The Prime Minister repeated that'he would have inquiries. made into tho matter. He would communicate with the head of the Dairy Division of the -Department. .of Agriculture, and also with the chairman of the Food Supplies and Foodstuffs Commission.