MILK AT COOLGARDIE PRICES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2739, 6 April 1916, Page 8

MILK AT COOLGARDIE PRICES

THE DROUGHT AND LOCAL SUPPLIES

WHAT MIGHT BE DONE

"The people of Wellington are pacing Coolgartlie prices for their milk— do you know what- that means?" The fiuestion was directed to a representative of 'I'hk Dominion yesterday by a gentleman who is in close touch with the dairying industry all over the country. Ho had just returned from an inland tour- of the dairying districts, and returned with the conviction that there was no need for the present shortage in local supplies if the authorities were prepared to go to a little trouble to deal with the problem on commonsense iines.

"In Coolgardie there is no feed for cows, and the problem of milk supply has to be solved by the transportation of fodder. The cows are staoled and fed just like horses. Yet the people of Coolgardie are getting their milk at the same price as we here in Welling' ton aro paying now." "How do you account for the diffionly liere, : tnen?" the speaker was asked. '

' "Well," he replied, "I have just been through tho country districts, and 1 must say that i have never seen such a drought in the' Wellington milk area —the territory from which we got our local supplies along both lines, Manawatu and Hutt Valley. There is unquestionably a very great shortage of milk. But just beyond the Wellington milk area the farmers-, have more milk than tliey know vliat to do with, and would, be glad to sell if the-problem of railage could be 6olved." "Are the farmers free to sell—have they 110 commitments to'the factories ?'■'

"Quite free. There, is. only the question of transportation. They would jamp at ; the'chance. .. .It would pay. them. Let mo' demonstrate: It takes .two gallons and one pint of milk to make one pound of butter. Very well. You <iro :paying just now, let us say, is,' (id. a. [pound for your butter, so .you .can iigure out what the farmer gets out of those two 1 gallons and one pint if he sells to the factory to make thai 0110 pound of butter. If,, instead, he s;">!d to the milk "supplier, who is netting 6d. a quart at the present t>me, it would mean, that his two gallons' and 0110 pint of ,milk, by the time it reaches the consumer, would realise 4s. lid., and you can figure out what that means to tlio farmer as compared to the butter proposition." ■ "How would you solve tho question of transportation fronr the country beyond the Wellington milk area?" "I would run a night milk tram from Woodville, to tap these districts, and :deliver last night's milk in tho City in :the early hours of the morning. I : would also ruii'milk cars with the mornling's milking to reach here in the aftermoon. There is no difficulty about the ■matter at all. It is simply a question Ifor the authorities, who 6liould'take up tliis milk proposition and control the City's supplies on business lines."