THE FIXED MILK PRICES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2987, 26 January 1917, Page 6

THE FIXED MILK PRICES

WHOLESALE SUPPLIERS PROTEST

MINISTER PROMISES PUBLIC

INQUIRY

An emphatic protest against tho recent proclamation fixing tho wholesale price of milk in tho AVellington district ;.at IOJd. per gallon was made by a deputation that waited upon the Hon. AV. I). S. Mac-Donald, president of the Board of' Trade, yesterday. The deputation represented the AVellington Dairy Farmers' Association, the organi-» satio'n formed by the dairymen engaged in the wholesale supply of milk for the AVellington retail trade. It demanded a public inquiry regarding the cost of production, and the Minister promised to meet the wishes of the dairymen in this respect. Mr. H. A. AVard, secretary of the association, said that the dairy farmers considered that they had been treated in an arbitrary and unfair manner by the Government. They had learned suddenly, through tho columns of tho newspapers, that they must not charge jnore than IOJd- per gallon for the milk they sold to the retail vendors.; They had not been consulted in any way concerning the proclamation, and they had not been told how long the order would operate. The.producers of meat, butter and cheese had been treated very differently, and the dairy farmers wished to protest emphatically. Mr. AVard proceeded to say that the action of the Government would have' a very serious effect upon tho supply of milk to the city intho near future. If the proclamation was intended to have effect during the winter months', then there would be very little milk indeed for the people of AVellington, because the farmers could not afford to feed cows and then sell the milk at less than the cost

of production. The Board of Trade, as far as the association knew, had made no inquiry at all as to the costs incurred by the farmers in the production of the milk. The association demanded now that.a full publio inquiry should be held and the whole question investigated. If the inquiry showed that IOJd. was a fair price, then the farmers would have nothing more to -, say. But they asked in the meantime that tho proclamation should be suspended. Mr. AVard referred to tho arduous nature of tho dairy farmers' work, and said that there-was no comparison between the supply of milk to a factory and the supply to a city. The conditions were entirely different, chiefly because the city wanted milk all tho year round, whereas the factory took supplies in tho spring and summer months only. Mr. F. J. Ryder, president of the association, said that the dairy farmers felt they had been condemned without trial. Nothing short of a full public inquiry, would satisfy the farmers that they wero receiving justice. Thev wanted an opportunity to show what the actual conditions of the industry wero and what the milk cost to produce.

Mr. W. G. Strand said that the association liad not been formed to increase prices. Its purposes had been to improve the conditions of the trade, prevent waste and so forth. Most of the dairymen supplying Wellington were working in a small way, and in past years they had suffered severe loss through having to sell surplus milk at 3d., and even 2d., per . gallon during the summer mouths, when the supply exceeded the demand. The association had arranged for a factory to take the surplus milk. During- December, between 800 and 1000 gallons per day had been going into this factory from the members of the association, but at present, owing to the reduction of supplies, the City was taking every gallon available, and even then there was a shortage. Mr. Strand added that tlie dairy-farmers had invited the fullest investigation of their affairs. They had stated their willingness to submit their accounts to audit by the Board of Trade or the Wellington City Council, and. they were not a bit afraid of letting the public know all abonj their side of the case. . The Minister's Reply. The Minister, in reply, said that he certainly had intended no discourtesy to the dairy-farmers in connection with the issue of the proclamation. The Board of Trade had advised him that action was necessary, and he had moved as quickly as he could. The board had investigated conditions connected with Wellington's milk supply, and it had taken the evidence of the secretary of tho association, Mr. Ward. That was about six months igo. Mr. Ward had said then that'the association was satisfied to secure for \ its members one penny per gallon more than was pajd to suppliers by the dairy factories. Tfle figures collected by the Board of Trade showed that for many years past the summer price of milk in Wellington, as supplied by the dairymen to the vendors, had not exceeded Bd. per gallon. This year tho association had put up the price to IOJd. per gallon, and then the Board of Trade had heard that early in January the association proposed to make the price llkl. per gallon, an advance of over , Sid. on the prices of previous years. The board was of opinion that the information it its disposal justified action to prevent this further increase. The members of the association were already getting about 3d. per gallon more for their milk than the dairy factories were paying, and their secretary had stated ou oath that they wore satisfied with Id. over tho factory price. The Minister addedthat ho. recognised the influence of the seasons upon the cost of production, and had intended the proclamation to have effect only until the middle or end of March, when the price of milk normally increased in the City owing to reduced supplies and increased working costs. He was quite prepared in the meantime to have the whole question investigated if competent persons could be found to undertake the work. He felt, personally, that ihe inquiry might not be very opportune. He was prepared to admit that j,he cost of production on the farms lad risen to some extent. The price of stock had increased greatly, but wbile this taxed the dairy-farmer at one point, it benefited him'materially when he came to sell discarded cows. Beasts that used to be worth 30s. would now bring £10 or £12. Board of Trade's Inquiries, Mr. J. By. Hart, a member of the Board of Trade, was also present. He asked Mr. Ward at this stage what was tho subscription to the association. Mr. Ward said the subscription was one farthing a gallon on milk supplied. But this covered bad debts, alleged shortages and losses on sour milk. The money was not used as a lighting fund. Mr. Hart said that the Board of Trade had dealt with the matter after full consideration, and in the light of tho information it had gathered. It had been convinced that tTie proposal to increase the wholesale price to ll}d. .per gallon was not-justified during.the summer months, and so had recommended tho Minister to limit the price to IOJd. The increase proposed would have put up the price to the general public from sd. to at least 5Jd. per quart. The Board had investigated the milk question very closely. It had heard evidence on its own account, and it had examined tho evidence placed before the Wellington " City Council on various occasions. He believed ' it could estimate more closely than tho average farmer could do what was the actual cost of production. The wholesale prices of milk in AVellington dur-

ing previous years had been as follows : —September, 1912, to February, 1913, 7sd. per gallon (summer price); March, April, and May, 1913, 9d. per gallon; June, July, and August, 1913, lid. per gallon. Then the prico fell again to tho summer level, and stood at 7Jd. per gallon until the end of February, 1914. It reached lid. in the winter of 1914, but from September of 1914 till the end of February, 1915, it stood ai 7sd. After the winter of 1915 the summer price was fixed in September at Bd., and no change was .made till the end of February, 1916. The winter price in 191fi reached Is. Id., the highest recorded, and in September, 1916, instead of coining back to Bd., the prico was fixed at lOkl. per gallon. The Board of Trade considered that a, very full price, but it did not feel called upon to interfere until the association announced a riso to lljd. during the summer months, when the prices of previous yenrs had been 7kl. and Bd. This increase did not appear reasonable, and lie did not believe the members of the association would say that 101-d- per gallon was not a profitable summer price. Mr. Hart added that the publie was paying too much for milk, and the Board nf Trade could not sec- the burden increased unnecessarily.

Mr. Ward, in explanation, said he had stated in his evidence that his association sought to obtain for its members the equivalent of the factory prior , , nlus a penny per gallon, but he denied that the present price represented an advance of 3d. on the factory prices. The Minister's calculation had been based upon pounds of butter-fat, not gallons of milk. Then the farmers were not getting 10-kl. per gallon for their milk. That was the price in Wellington, and freight charges had to be covered. Ho pressed for a more definite statement regarding the public inquiry, and asked if the proclamation would be suspended in the meantime.

The Minister said be would go fully into the matter. Ho could not promise to suspend the proclamation. He would arrange for the holding of an inquiry. Perhaps a Magistrate could sit as chairman, with one representative of the association and one man chosen bi' the Government.