THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3143, 28 July 1917, Page 9

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

A SERIES OF QUESTIONS

CHEESE NEGOTIATIONS

BUTTER-FAT LEVY

A number of questions wero asked in tho House of Representatives yesterday regarding dairy produce—the'price of cheeso and butter, the butter-fat levy, and kindred matters.

Dr. Thacker asked tho Prime Minister ■whether he knew that since tho announcement had been made that 17 ships wero coming to New Zealand to load produce before the ond of September tho owners of the butter now in the stores had increased the price to retailers from Is. GJd. to Is. 7{d. ?

Mr. Massey said he was unaware tlint anything of the sort had happened. But it was just as well to understand that tho maximum price for butter still stood. Ho promised to refer tho matter to tho Board of Trade.

Mr. Poolo asked the Prime Minister whether ho was awara that on account of the aholitiou of tho butter levy tho price of butter had hardened considerably to the consumer in Auckland.

Mr. Massey said that he was not aware of this. 4s a matter of fact tho butterfat levy wiitj not abolished. It was going to be, but there were difficulties in tho ■way of abolishing the levy until August 31. Mr. W. H. Field asked whether the Prime Minister had any information from tho Imperial authorities which would help tho dnjry factories to dec.ido whether thev should devoto attention to cheeso or butter this season.

Mr. Massey said that negotiations for the, purchase by tho Imperial Government of 50,000 tons of cheeso jvero proceeding, and wero likely to go on for somo littlo time. Tho chief point of difference between cheeso and butter was that cheeso was required as an Army ration, and butter was not. Tho amount of cheeso to bo requisitioned would mako up tho greater part of the output for the season. Owing to tho departure of so many men from the country the production this year was not likely to bo as big as last year. Mr. Wilkinson: It is going down already in Taranuki.

Mr. Massoy said lip was sorry to hear that this was bo. but ho believed it to he true. The fanners asked that the prico to he .paid to them should he the same as that paid to tho Canadian fanners for their cliecsp. 'J'he prico of Canadian cheese f.o.h. was Hid. per lb. The freight from Canada was about id. per lb. and from New Zealand i}d. Of the Canadian price Id. |icr lb. was by way of commission, and it did not go to the farmers. Rome of tho producers thought that this halfpenny should not W deducted for the purposo of assessing the price to the New Zealand producer's, but ho did not think this would be (lono. Another point to bo remembered was that in the open liinrket Canadian cheese usually brought 2s. per owt. more than New Zealand cheese. He had cabled the Imperial Hoard of Trade the wishes of tlie New Zealand producers, and lie hoped to have a reply in ten or twelve days. Mr. A. Walker asked whether the interests of the consumer would be protected in future in regard to tho iprico of butter.

Mr. Massoy said that the interests of the consumer would be protected as well as those of the producer. The butterfat levy was only a temporary measure, expiring in the ordinary courpe 011 August 31.