MILK PRICES

Evening Star, Issue 22453, 25 September 1936, Page 1

MILK PRICES

LOCAL CONTROL RECOMMENDED [JTrom Oor Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September 24. There was a general aspect to the report of the Industries and Commerce Committee to the House regarding a petition from the milk producers and vendors of Napier, who desired that a minimum price be fixed foremilk retailed in the Borough of Napier. The committee reported that the Minister of Industries and Commerce has statutory power to fix prices, but it also recommended that the Government consider amending the Municipal Corporations Act to enable local bodies to control the position in their own localities, as the Napier problem existed in many other places. The chairman of the committee (Mr Hodgens) stated that the Napier vendors, with the assistance of the Industries and Commerce Department, came to an agreement regarding an economic retail price, but could not enforce it owing to one individual refusing to concur. The Napier Borough was enforcing the tubercule test in inspect to herds supplying tbp borougn, and he considered that if a meal authority had this power it should also be able to deal with the fixation of a reasonable price for milk sold under conditions which involved expense to the producers.