THE PRICE OF BUTTER

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 32, 2 November 1920, Page 8

THE PRICE OF BUTTER

STATE SUBSIDY CONDEMN.D

VIEWS OF CHAMBER OP

COMMERCE

PAYMENT FOR GRADING URGED

"Another question I have to hring up is tliut of butter," said the president of llie Wellington Chamber of Commerce (Mr. M. A. Citrr) nt yesterday's moetitijr of the council of tho chamber. He said that it ltncl been represented to him that the 2d. per lb. allowed tho retailer in Holliiiff butter for cash was out of all proportion to his overhead chaws, which ranged from 18 to 20 per cent. The position. was that roUileis were to charge 2s. 3d. per lb. for butter thov paid 2s. Id. for, whilst for booked butter they could charge 2s. sd. per lb. He understood that the distributors wore to wait upon the Prime Minister with a view of getting some measure of relief. An Unsound Principle. Tho broad position was that tho Government had agreed to pay tho sum .of ,£OOO,OOO to the butter producers from tho Consolidated Revenue to make up the difference between what they would Ret from the consumers of New Zealand, and what they could obtain on n freo market. The principle involved was, in his opinion, quite unsound. If the Government were going to compensate producers in that, way, it was a benefit that might- with justice bo claimed in all directions. Some would 6ay that it was done in other countries, but what was done in other countries should not affect n producing country like New Zealand, and to adopt a procedure which might he justifiable under special circumstances did not make the principle applicable to all countries. He held it to be basically unsound in principle to interfere at ail with the eternal law of supply and demand, and held that a producer, was entitled to get what prices he could for his produce. The Government's action in attempting to standardise profits, was utterly unjustifiable and unsound. The labourer was worthy of his hire and the hutter producer was entitled to get the highest prices, -but why 1 he should be singled out for such regard was. another matter. Why should not the same principle be applied to the producer of timber or woollen goods; They found to-day that restrictions were placed on timber and woollen goods. One could not export a single rug without n special permit. In reading the evidence in the recent alleged profiteering eases, he noticed that the prices of woollens and worsteds here were considerably less than were being charged in tho Old Country. Why should not the producers of such goods have/ tho fresdoui of tho markets of the. world open to them, as was being guaranteed the butter men bv the action of -the Government? -'In Ne.w Zealand the Government had instituted a grading department, which had had the effect of bringing up our butter to the best standard in the world, and it went out with the hall-mark of the Government upon it. The producer was gotting the full benefit of that system, and he mai-tained that those using trho grading sysiem should pay for it. At present it was paid for by the peopls of New Zealand, and it was tho people of New Zealand who had to find that .£600,000 over and above what they paid for their butter to compensate tile butter producers of this country. He knew of no other industry that was getting such encouragement. Ihe time had now arrived when a man should have to paj for the grading of his produce, and he felt fully justified m calling iitl;ontion to the anomaly which existed at the present time. "Mere Piffle!"

. Mr. C. H. Young stated tlmt a business man recently from California said that I" America the New Zealand Government's fixation-of-prices idea was rezarded as "mere piffle. • 111 California the Government encouraged a man to get nil lie could for his produce. At the end of the year he had to declare before a notary what lie had made and what he had done with it. If he had spent his profit's in the development of his business he was only charged ordinary income tax, but if he had sent it away out of the State to bp. invested elsewhere lie had, in addition, to pay a EU Tho Council decided that the retail cash price of butter should be 2s. M., as giving a fair return for handling such an essential and every-day commodity.