PRICE OF BUTTER

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 164, 7 April 1921, Page 6

PRICE OF BUTTER

CONFERENCE AT PALMERSTON YESTERDAY

BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S STOCKS

MAY BE QUIT AT A LOSS

A meeting of representatives of dairy companies called by the Butter and Cheese Committee was held in Palmerston North yesterday, to consider again tho price to be charged for butter in New Zealand during the next few months. The decision of a similar conference at the end of last month was that the factory price should be 2s. 2{d. per pound, and that the retail price should be 2s. Gd. per pound. The matter is being discussed again in the light of suggestions made to t'he companies by the Government, which does not think that the retail price ought to be increased at the present time in view of the falling market. The resuK of the conference will be communicated to the Government.

Tho reductions that are reported by cablegram bring t'he price of Australian butter down to less than 2s. per pound wholesale. A large quantity of butter is still being held in Australia at the disposal of the Imperial Government, and it is possible that the British authorities have indicated their willingness Co quit some of this at a loss, in view of the heavy accumulation of stocks and the falling prices in the United Kingdom. “A statment is being made that the Government intends to use Imperial stocks of butter to force down the local price ibelow the cost of production,” said the Prime Minister (Mr. Massey) yesterday. "This statement is not correct. It is the reverse of correct. It is the business of the Government to do its duty to both the producers and tho consumers. All that the Government knows about t'he Imperial stocks of butter, which are not under our control, is that tho Imperial Government is willing, under certain conditions, to sell the butter at a lower price than was paid for it.” , ... Mr. Massey’s statement refers to butter that was purchased by the British Government through the Imperial Supplies Department under the contract that expired on March 31. The price paid for this butter was 2s. 6d. per pound. A very large quantity of this Imperial butter is still in the stores in New Zealand awaiting shipment. me reason why the Briitsh Government is willing to sell butter from the stores at a loss is obvious, in the light of the statement gabled thia week that thp wholesale price of New Zealand firs .and second grade butter in London Is now 2625. a hundredweight, or roughly o, 41d per pound. The, price already mid for the stored butter is 2s. 6d. per pound, and the cost ’anded in London will bo in the neighbourhood of 9d. per pound. A further fall in the London price is predicted.

SUBSTANTIAL REDUCTIONS IN AUSTRALIA. Melbourne, April 6. Dairy produce merchants have decided on a reduction of the price 7id per pound ■wholesale and to 9(1. per pound retail-Press Assn. F Adelaide, April 6. ' Representatives of the producing trades to-day have reduced the price of butter by sjd. per pound wholesale. Iress Assn- .