The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1908. ANOTHER RISE IN BUTTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 408, 9 July 1908, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1908. ANOTHER RISE IN BUTTER.

'A cabeeokam was recently ic'ceived from Melbourne and published in the newspapers wnich stated “ that an important movement with regard to the marketing ot butier is now being considered by co-operative companies in Australia and New Zealand, by means of which it is claimed that some control will be obtained over the supply and demand of Australasian butter and cheese in Loudon. The arrival of New Zealand butter in London will be so regulated as to prevent the clashing of Australian and New Zealand dairy interests. A representative body will be created in London, working on the lines of the Copenhagen committee.” It may bo mentioned that the Copenhagen committee consists of representatives of all the Danish butter producers. It holds regular meetings and fixes the wholesale price at which Danish butter shall be offered for sale in London. An Australasain combine could cooperate with this committee, and together they could control the bulk of the world's butter. Thus a huge combine could bring about a monopoly in the butter industry. Messrs Osborne and \Vyett, two Victorians, recently visited New Zealand and addressed farmers at the National Dairy Show at Palmerston North with the object of getting New Zealanders to join in the proposed Australasian trust. The chief objects of the movement are to fix prices and save expenses, and the desire is to envelop all Australasia in the combination in order to secure the maximum of power in dealing with the markets. The movement aims to embrace b oth the foreign and the local markets. In Victoria there are three groups

of factories already in combination, and each group employs an agent in London, w'. )*, witli the other two Victorian a .eats, fixes prices. Messrs Osborne nd Wyell represent two of these groups. Their agents in Ton don naturally find their power to control prices weakened by the fact that New Zealand butter, which is of much superior quality, is not in the ring ; and it is obviously to their interests to force New Zealand to federate with them. Although “federation” is not an attractive word to the ears of New Zealanders, it is understood that some of those at the meeting at Palmerston North were led by. the arguments put before them to regard it with some favour. That meeting was convened by the National Dairy Association (ot New Zealand), and a long detailed scheme strongly favouring a marketing combine was read from the Association’s London agent, Mr Mackie. Finally, printed copies of the scheme were distributed, and a further meeting will be held to deal with the matter. This leads up to the point that butter has gone up in retail price to 1/5 per lb—at least that is the figure, so we are informed by a a local storekeeper, that will be charged for the commodity—as from to-day. Consumers must not blame the storekeepers for the extra rise—it is not their desire to bleed their customers. We cannot ascertain the cause for the sudden rise, the foreign market does not justify it, and there is plenty of the greasy commodity in stock in the Dominion. The only conclusion, therefore, we can come to is that the Hebrew monopolists are working a dirty point. However, consumers must pay the extortionate 1/5 per lb for their butter in order to provide dividends for Jewish financiers, or fall back on drippin’ or “ Scandinavian jam ” until the prices fall.