WRONG TRADE MARKS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5072, 7 January 1927, Page 1

WRONG TRADE MARKS.

DOMINION PRODUCE IN ENGLAND. TRAVELLER’S ALLEGATIONS. Allegations that New Zealand butter was being retailed on the Home market bearing trade marks of Danish and English factories were made on Tuesday by Mr W. G. Wright, of Auckland, who recently returned from a trip abroad. Mr Wright said tnat he spent four months in London, and although he was careful to make inquiries for New Zealand, butter, h& only found it in one. shop. The butter exported from New Zealand was going somewhere and he took steps to ascertain where it went. Many shopkeepers said that they had stocked New Zealand butter once, but. did not take it a second time owing to its high price. One retailer showed him stocks of butter in his shop bearing the mark of a Devonshire 'factory. This factory was handling the milk of 50 cows, yet it sent 50 tons of butter a week to the London marked. Mr Wright said that he was informed that New Zealand butter was. sent to the. factory in bulk, made up into pound pats, and retailed at about 4d a pound more, than New Zealand butter offered for direct sale. The same thing was done by Denmark, he said. Information he obtained showed that hundreds of tons of New Zealand butter went to Denmark and were sent back te England as Danish produce. It seined hardly fair that New -Zealand producers should be denied the benefits df high prices on account of these practices. He was of opinion .that wftre New Zealand butter exported in pound pats the sales would be doubled.

New Zealand cheese was treated in the same way, Mr Wright said. He was shoevn cheqse which was selling as a fancy brand, yet. it had merely been cut into square blocks after being unpacked, and sent to the retailer under another name.

Butchers told him they could not.sell Ne.w Zealand beef, as it was supposed to shrink when cooked. Outside Smithfield it was impossible, to find New Zealand beef. Where it went, to remained a mystery. He had actually seen lamb sold as prime Canterbury, yet it bore the Westfield tags.