MEAT AND BUTTER

Hokitika Guardian, 11 June 1920, Page 3

MEAT AND BUTTER

FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE MARKET.

j ’ WELLINGTON, June 8. Since the break up' of congestion at the London docks there lias been an improved outlook in regard to shipping. So far as New, Zealand is concerned, the available tonnage is keeping up very j well, and if the preseat satisfactory state of affairs is maintained the amount of mutton in stock at the end of December will certainly not be more than the estimate of two and a. half million carcases mentioned at the recent meeting of producers. It is not certain how the butter producers will fare in regard to shipping space. They wanted a- free market, but it is not certain if the Home ' Government will buy their output, and the control of shipping is in the hands of the Home Government. There is I not much likelihood that the Home Government will give up their control, at least till the end of this year. They have never yet stated the date at which their control will be given up. _ ~ Meantime considerable numbers of butter producers are not •at all sure that they did the right thing in voting for a free market. The moment control . prices cease there seems a disposition for prices of most commodities to tumble down; indeed, as time goes on it would appear ns if the commandeer was after all, the very best thing for the New Zealand producer. In any case without it he could not have got his produce to a market during the war, , and the Prime Minister did a great deal much more than most of them are aware of, in getting them shipping space for the Home market. *• The commandeer of butter ends on July 31st. Meantime at the forthcoming meeting of those interested in the < dairy industry, to be held at Palmerston North, there will be discussed a pro. posal to dispose of the New Zealand supplies in Britain through the agency of the Wholesale Co-oerative Society ( of England. The proposal is to form a company with £109,000 capital, half to he subscribed here. If the scheme matures a Control Board will fix the prices New Zealand producers are to receive and the middleman will be largely done with. The Co-operative Society is a very big concern, dealing with an enormous number of members and consumers, and the Tooley Street operators will lie up against it. Meantime the Government lias ✓seen to it that New Zealand householders will have < enough butter to tide them over the winter at a reasonable prico.