BUTTER PRICES ENQUIRY.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1920, Page 3

BUTTER PRICES ENQUIRY.

(Per Press Association,) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Butter Price? Investigation Committeo set up by the House of Representatives 'met again this morning. The first witness was Miss Goad, representing Now Zealand National Council of Women, who contended the people of the Dominion should not be penalised in the price of products owing to the high values of land, which more orless, is artificial. She advocated the control of the price of butter and an export tax. ' She also contended that the middleman.should be eliminated, as in Wellington, experience showed that- butter sold by direct supplies stores was cheaper than by ordinary retailers. ■ ■ ' '* .

O. 'B. 'Norwood, in chair of Wellington City, Milk Supplies, said the City Council had no voice in the price it paid for milk, it, being governed by the price fiixed by the Board of Trade with farmers. The result of the Coun-' cil’s operations had been to somewhat reduce the cost to the consumer. Between the years 1915-16 and 1920-21,* the wholesale price of milk increased by 78.83 per cent, while the retail price only increased 68.42. The average price charged consumers, summer'and winter, was eightpenee per quart, and improvements at the milk station and method of distribution would still further (reduce the cost to consumers as soon as” they could be effected. No individual supplier could serve the people of the city as well, or as cheaply as the Cofincil was now doing.

Any action taken by the Committee regulating the" price of blitter must greatly effect the city’s milking supply. The danger of attacking butter was that all products of the farm must also - be attacked, otherwise production (would be diverted from butter to something else. As the best means of .adjusting the , present abnormal butter situation, he favoured an export tax, though lie would only interfere with Commercial system with great reluctance.

J. B. McEwan gave evidence as to the increased cost in connection with the distributj|on of butter'. Distributors were only asking in New Zealand the same price as was allowed in Sydney under Government control. Arthur, Latham ,a. farmer of Awa4niri, farming 70 acres, valuing his land at £64 per acre ’ ,produced n| balance sheet showing* his los's was £74 14s 9d on the year’s working, after allowing himself £2OO as wages. This loss to some extent was augmented by the abnormal loss of stock, but on the other hand incidental expenses might liave been less than normal. One of the difficulties the daily farmer had to face were expenses. He had to. pay every time the farm was sold. The land agent took fifteen per cent. Government six per cent, and lawyer, four per cent. These were leeches living on farms.. He cdluld produce to ■ the committfee many cases in which farmers'were working farms under distressing conditions. He thought many farmers were doing better out of tlieir families than out of their cows. He thought his land i\ ould fetch £l4O per acre in the open market to-day. On that basis, the cost of production of a pound of butter was 2s -IOJd.

The Committe decided to resume on Thursday.