THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3584, 21 September 1920, Page 5

THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

——°o — evidence before the COMMITTEE. a ' WELLINGTON, This day. The Butter Prices Investigation Com mi: tee set up by the House of Representatives met again this morning. The first witness was Hiss Coad, representing the New Zealand National Council of Women, who contended that the people of the Dominion should uot be penalised in the price of product? owing to the high values of land, which were more oi less artificial. She advocated >a controlled price for butter and au export tax. She also contended that the middleman should r.be eliminated as in Wellington experience showed that butter sold by direct supply-stores was cheaper than that sold by ordinary letailers.

Mr. G. B. Norwood, in charge of the Wellington City milk supplies, said the City Connei;’: had no voice in the price it paid for milk, it being governed by the price fixed by the Board of Trade with the farmers. The result of the Council's operations had been to somewhat reduce 'the cost to the. consumer. Between the years 1915-1(5 and 1920-21, the wholesale price of milk had increased by 78.83 per cent.,

while thiv retail price only increased by 08.42 per cent. The average price charged to consumers, summer and winter, was eightpence per quart. Improvements at ’the milk station and in the method of distribution would still further reduce the cost to the consumer. As soon as the improvements con'd be effected, no individual supplier could serve the people as well, as,or as cheaply as the Council is now doing. Any action taken by the Committee regulating the price of butter must greatly affect The city’s milk supplies. The danger of attacking butter was that all the products of the farm must ;*lsg be attacked; otherwise production would be diverted from butter to something else. As the best means of adjusting the present abnormal butter situation, he favoured an export tax; though he would only interfere with the commercial system with, great reluctance. Mr. J. B. MeEwan gave evidence as to increased costs in connection with the distribution of butter. The. distributors were only asking in New Zea’and the same price as is now allowed in Sydney under Government control.

..COMEDIE FRANCAISE COSTS... It costs 3,500,000 francs a year to run Comedie Francaise in Paris, according to the directors of that theatre, who are appealing to the French Senate to add another 500,000 francs to its revenue in the way of a subvention so that it can pay its bills. •The Government's grant to the Comedie Francaise has not been increased since 1914, despite the fact that French theatregoers are more exacting than ever in their demand for new scenery and expensive costumes instead of accepting the time worn settings which charmed pre-war audiences. Records show that monthly-receipts of 300,000 francs are necessary if the Comedie Francaise is to pay expenses. However, the French public refuses to pay the constantly increasing price demanded for tickets and are turning their attention to the cinemas and the cheaper playhouses in the surburban districts.

The Opera and the Opera Comique also are asking for financial assistance, and the Senate is faced with the necessity of either refusing ah. of them or abandoning the plan to create another popular Theatre du Trocadcro, with the State as patron.