AUCKLAND BUTTER PRICES.

Shannon News, 27 February 1925, Page 4

AUCKLAND BUTTER PRICES.

IS THIS CO-OPERATION? The controversy going on in Auckland between the Opotiki Dairy Association and the New Zealand Co-op-eratdve (Dairy Company, Hamilton, is by no means closed. The latest move is an attempt, made by the Opotiki Association, to form a price-fixing committee which is to include all dairy companies supplying butter to the Auckland market. This attempt, however, seems to bp doomed to failure, as the biggest supplier—the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company —refuses to joint the committee. , , The main reasons for such a refusal were given by Mr. W. Goodfellow (Managing Director of the Hamilwa Company) to a representative of the New Zealand Herald, viz: the presence of proprietary interests on the committee and the fixing of local prices on the basis of quotations cabled by the High Commissioner from week to week. The fixing of local butter prices has always been a difficult problem, but we are inclined to think, that the task undertaken by tho Opotiki Dairy Association to work in harmony .with the managing director of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company is an impossible one, unless the Association is prepared to accept the New Zealand Dairy Company's prices as a standard of values for the Auckland market. , . Replying to Mr. R. R. Hogg, chairman of the Opotiki Dairy Association, Mr. Goodfellow once more mounts the high horse and swings the big stick, a'nd as usual swings it in the name of co-operatdon. According to his dictum he appears to imply that proprietary companies have no moral right to supply butter to the local market, intentionally or unintentionally overlooking the fact that the persons he is penalising are the producers rather than the proprietors. The erratic movements which.have been going on in the Auckland market during the last few months have made themselves felt throughout the whole of the North Island and a certain amount or speculation has been the result. It will therefore be learnt with regret that an amicable understanding is further off than ever and price cutting is likely to be a feature of the future, the producers having to pay, of course,, every time.