PRICE OF BUTTER.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 211, 14 October 1916, Page 2

PRICE OF BUTTER.

WELLINGTON, October 12. Representatives of the Dairy Companies, after a conference, adopted resolutions ■ entirely disapproving of the Board of Trade to levy a tax on all butter-fat, on the ground that a levy was economically unsound, a class tax, and an interference with small framers, who are at present bearing an enormously increased cost of production consequent on the war. Also that a local increase was not only justified but necessary in the general interests of the industry, owing to the fact that butter for export was to-day worth Is • 6§d to Is 7£d f.0.b., the local equivalent of which, after meeting distribution and marketing charges, was Is Sd per lb wholesale and Is lOd retail, as compared with a charge to consumers in Britain of 2s per lb. If any limitation of price is deemod necessary, they siigcsted that the cost should be charged against the consolidated revenue, a precedent for which was provided by the Imperial Government with respect to the increased wages c;f railway workers in Great Britain_ The producers set up a committee of .dieese and butter reprosentatives, comprising Messrs Morton, Powdrell, Pacey, Marx, Fisher, and Agar to watch the interests of producers.