THE PRICE OF BUTTER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 70, 15 December 1917, Page 11

THE PRICE OF BUTTER

LOCAL SUPPLIES MAY BE SHORT

EXPORT PRICES HIGHER

Tfoiible may occur m the near fnturo about the supplies of butter for the local market. There is still iixeil by the Board of Trade and Ihb. Government a maximum t>rice for butter of Is. Sil. pet .pound, so that' in the meantime the price of butter may not be raised. The danger is that supplies may be withheld. i'ho conditions upon which tho New Zealand output of butter for this season was sold to tho Imperial Government were that there should be i\ delinite export price of 157b. per cWt 4 a trifle less than Is. &L per pound, and also that the owners of tho butter sent from this country should receive 50 per cent, of the profit made by tho Imperial authorities in the sale of tho butter to the public in England or elsewhere. This porcentago threatens to amount to something considerable, about 3d. per pound, so that it will not long pay tho factories or the producers to supply the local market at a price which will allow of butter being sold at Is. 8d,,-retail.

The suppliers' of the local market claim that they will be placed at a disadvantage of 2d. per pound as compared with those who export. Under these circumstances it is probable that there will be no factories willing to supply the local market unless at a higher price than that which they are at present allowed to charge, and there is said to bo a real danjw of supplies of butter for tho New Zealand market running short unless something is done soon. In order to make good to the suppliers of the local market tho loss of profit they may be called upon to sustain only two things may be done. The loss may be inade tip out of tho Consolidated" Fund, or an equalisation fund may be established, and an equalisation fund would involve something in tho nature of the reimposition of the butter-fat levy. The House declared pretty definitely against both proposals during the session. The Cost of Living Committee discussed both schemes, and in tlie end recommended payment from the Consolidated Fund. This was opposed by the Government, especially by the Minister of Finance, who pointed to the enormous cost of such _ a scheme. The end was that the committee withdrew the recommendation, without substituting anything for it. It is just as certain that a recommendation by the committee that equalisation funds should be established for the regulation of the prices of buttor and other locally-produced articles of food would havo been even more strenuously opposed by the House. The Government can ke«p tho price of hutter down by exercising the power it still has of refusing to permit the export of butter unless the local price is kept down, but a regulation of this kind can scarcely bo put into operation when every _ advantage must be taken of the limited shipping facilities offering.