THE BUTTER MARKET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 23

THE BUTTER MARKET.

LONDON. February 19. The arrival of 90,000 boxes of butter has steadied the market. There is a fair demand for Australian and New Zealand at 150s, and occasionally 1525. The general impression is that the market ahs reached the top.

PALMERSTOX N., February 20. The Palmerston office of the New Zealand Farmers Dairy Union received a cable to-d-ay from Weddel and Co., London, stating that the butter market is weakening, and that there is a strong downward tendency. AUCKLAND. February 20. The effects of the long-continued dry weather, coupled with the resultant fires, are becoming very serious in this province. Apart from the destruction of valuable bush the fires have in many instances swept across the pastures, with the resuH that thousands of acres are absolutely without a blade of glass. Naturally, this has had a most serious effect on the dairying industry, and unless the rains set in shortly it will be impossible for the pasture to recover m time to carry over the winter. That the gravity of the present position of affairs is recognised by farmers is shown by the fact that they are in many instances holding back their cbaS, evidently fearing that they will yet require it for feeding their own stock. In some cases stacks of oaten hay which had been offered for sale have been withdrawn. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that the position of the butter market is very uncertain. It is recognised that rains -within a fortnight might result in supplies of butter for the autumn, but under no circumstances now can theie be any flush of butter this year.