DAIRY PRODUCE CONTROL

Hokitika Guardian, 25 March 1925, Page 4

DAIRY PRODUCE CONTROL

SOME PLAIN eACT*

11. It already has been shown that while Danish butter is on the British nun Let all the year round, and is always available to purchasers, New Zealand butter is available in full quantities for only seven months in the year, in smaller quantities for a further three months, and practically not at all lor two months. Yet it is an accepted tact that anv article of consumption that is required the whole year round, and is not, merely seasonal, must he always available if n steady demand from the consuming public is to be created and maintained. Danish butter fulfils tins requirement. People who want Danish butter can always obtain it in any month of the year, or any week. New Zealand butter, on the other hand, is not always available, and the supply being interrupted the demand also is interrupted. W lieu New Zealand hutler is going on to the nmrkct in ivu-voii-able quantities its price approaches nearer to that of the Danish article; but when it is put forward in excessive quantities the price declines and this continues till the lower price stimulates the demand sufficiently to absord the additional supply. If New Zealand lmtter is to establish itself alongside Danish Imtler. ami lie sold to the public as New Zealand butter, then it must be oil the market the whole year round to maintain an uninterrupted demand. THE PRESSING NEED.

This brings up again the question of the regulation of supplies. The Meat Board has met this problem successfully by regulating the quantity of meat that leaves the Dominion each month. The hoard does not fix the shipments ill even monthly quantities throughout the year, because New Zealand lamb, to a certain extent, is a seasonal commodity. While it is consumed the whole year round, the demand for it i.x much greater in the months of May. July and August than it is in the cooler months of the year. In regulating shipments provision is made lor this tendency. The board’s system of adjusting supplies to the needs of the market involves the holding of meat at this end, there being no question that New Zealand, and not London, is the proper place for the refrigerated storage of both meat and dairy produce. Storage is much cheaper and better m New Zealand than it is in Great Britain. and experience has shown that meat and butter retain their freshness longer at this end than they do at the other. In addition to this, the presence of large quantities of either meat or dairy produce in cold storage in London has a depressing inlhieuce upon the market, as the trader never knows when supplies may Im suddenly released. If the produce is held in New Zealand it may not be altogether out of sight, bill it does not constitute the daily menace „f a Hooded market. For these reasons, if anv regulation of the market is attempted, both meat and dairy produce, when necessary, should bo stored in New Zealand, A PRACTICAL SYSTEM.

AY fiat the Meat Hoard lias done the Dairy Hoard certainly could do. It has been'suggested that a good .plan would be to si dp butter from New Zealand in equal monthly quantities throughout the year, with, say. 1,500 Urns extra to arrive each month during the live slack Danish months from December to Apiil. A table throwing some lighL on this suggestion has been prepared showing (1) tho approximate quantities that have been shipped each month on tinaverage of the three years ended December :llst, 1021 ; (’>) the quantities it is suggested should have been shipped ; Ft) the quantities that would have remained in store alter such shipments, and (-1) the number of days’ make the quantities remaining in store would have represented. The billowing are figures:—•

' New Zealand butter would he on tlu* ' market (lining the twelve mouths of I the your, in suifiriont. quantity and , never over-supplied, establishing a demand for itself just as Danish butter has done. According to the above table the quantity held hack in store ; would never exceed (ii> days' make and for much the greater part ol the year ; it would be considerably less than half ■ that quantity. Storage for this time in properly regulated stores, such as there are in plenty in Ihe Dominion, would not mean any deterioration whatever in appearance or quality. All this could be done, as Hie Aleut Hoard mis demonstrated beyond dispute, without burdening the Dairy Hoard with grave financial responsibilities. ’lfie shipment of cheese could bo regulated in a similar way, but tho process Mould have to be .somewhat different, since the supplies of cheese from Canada Mould have to lie taken into account. The principle involved, however, Mould be precisely the same and a working basis could be easily arranged. F. 0.15. SALES. As for the contention that I’.o.'i. sides “ must he stopped because they are Ire qiiently employed in breaking down the market,” is a, little difficult to preserve the judicial mind in discussing sucli a proposition. Years ago ii number of factories sold their outputs lor the whole season at a_ price free c n hoard at the shipping port. In recent | years, however, factories have been selling their outputs for a month or two months ahead, and some ol th.ou from shipment to shipment. Ihise sales usually are made to firms engaged in the dairy business uho pui'cha ,e for their own distributive trade. It is stated by some of the supporters of “ Absolute Control " that these 1'.0.h. purchases are made for the puroose ol “ knocking the market about” and bringing prices down so that lhi* speculators may stop, in and reap illegitimate profits. But people do not Huy dairy produce, or anything else, with the idea of bringing down prices. ’I hey buy u'iih a. view to making a profit. The man that contemplates masking t In. market about does not buy lir.-t and begin the knocking about, process liter on. He starts a ‘‘hear," selling forward what lie does not possess, and calculating upon a depressed market, enabling him to buy at a lower rate and so cover bis forward sales at a j loiit. The f.o.ij. buyers, as a matter of fact, are the strongest supporters of Hie Nt \v Zealand dairy produce market, an 1 the more extensive their operations D a better for the producer. When a large section of the trade in Great RiHnui is interested in keeping prices up the ( dairy farmer has a very powmiil ally. A concluding article will sum up the ' whole position as it appears to an unbiased observer. 1

> H. § q- 1 c ’ - =? 11 ||ill 1 : ■< ’'-I 2. ” J ' |l ~ S 8 x i = =* -;iKr V 'S; = Qu:mtit it's shipped. 5 2 3 3 §3 § = •:; 5; «• ?;»; '= r S8SSHSS = Should have shipped. r 3 i. v 3 5=S ;/: r- r: gg*. ti _ 1 Halanee in Store. . r. — Dav’s make EL X.' X* X .- 8 -'i _ 5 - « «. in stare.