BUTTER PURCHASE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3199, 25 September 1917, Page 4

BUTTER PURCHASE

GOVERNMENT WILL BUT TO STOP SPECULATION. . A farther statement on the butler question was made in the House of Re- . preventatives last evening by the Prime Minister. . Mr. Young asked if the Prime Minister could give any more information on the subject as the producers were getting anxious, the season being well.advanced. Mi\ Massey stated that he had practically nothing further to add to his statement last week. On Saturday he sent another cablegram to the Imperial authorities urging them to\come to a decision at the earliest possible date. A very important change had taken place in the Pood Controller's Department at Home. They wero takinp over the whole of the Australian outpii/t, and also the' cold storage at Home, so that th«e was every chance that they would take cei* butter. A definite announcement on this subject might be confidently expected during the next few days. The Government were doing their best to settle this matter, and would settle it.' but they wra , © going to settle it in the interests of tho producers, not the speculators. He believed that if the Imperial Government did not lake over the butter output the New Zealand Government would have to take it over and regulate it, in the interests of tho producers and consumers, not the speculators. Under present conditions speculators were profiting by every scare ovor shortage of shipping, and (letting butter, cheaply, afterwards . getting their profit when the shipping situation improved. This would not be allowed to continue. '