The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8. THE BUTTER DROP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8046, 8 February 1906, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8. THE BUTTER DROP.

A drop of twelve shillings per cwt. in the price of New Zealand butter in the space of a few days is a very serious matter for the dairy piolucers of this colony, and, more particularly, to the producers of Turanaki. As the Wellington " Times " points out, the collapse of the market will probably all'ect half the factories in New Zealand ; as the proportion ot butter sold outright to Home buyers is about 50 per cent., those factories which depend for their profit upon the pi ices ruling at Home will now run the risk of a considerable loss. The date of the collapse, too, is parijc.iliirly unfortunate for the colony, as the heavy shipments of January land February—our largest export months-are 011 the oueau ; and the high prices ruling will have affected only the small shipments which have ! already reached England. The greater proportion of our butter will thus be affected by the drop in prices. , What is the cause of this alarming drop ( Two representatives of but-ter-buying concerns in Wellington, according to yesterday's wires, are not apprehensive over the fall, and state lliictuations at this time of the year may be looked forward to, hut in other quarters the belief is entertained that the present decease is only a prelude to a further decrease, the cause of it all being the operations of the butter fakers in the Old Country. One authority, Mr l'\

Greville, editor of tlie " Dairyman," in Thursday's " Times," puts the matter thus" The cable message to hand to,-day shows that the first squeeze of the boot that Ims been made for the producers of this colony has been applied. The message I refer to says: ' The butter market lias collapsed, American renovated avid mixtures being in large supply, seriously affecting the market, which is weak. Holders are anxious to sell, hut buyers are holding back, expect ing prices to go lower. The price of choicest New Zealand butter to-day day is 100s per cwt., Danish Ills.' A fortnight ago the price of New Zealand butter was 118s, and a fortnight hence it is more than likely it will be down to 9?s, and a month hence, owing to the fact that the but-

ter faker increases the supply twentylive per cent., it is possible that it will be down to HOs ; and wearo told by some gentlemen who spoke at the Chamber of Commerce the ot her day that because all the people in the dairy produce trade are not in this faking business, that we ought not to say anything about it. Sir, can any argument go further in the direction of crass stupidity than this? What the producers of this colony want to know is : Who ace the people in this faking business? And what can bo done to stop them < Perhaps there will be some definite action taken when the price falls to 70s, and there are indications that it will before the last of this season's make is on the English market. American 'renovated,' 1 may explain, is Americanese for faked butter, and

' mixtures' is the euphonious term that the English merchant applies to lii.s faked butter. It is evidently high time that the butter producers of this colony got 011 to the trail of the butter faker aial all lii.s [emissaries, for if a speedy stop is not put to the faking business ii. the Old Country, dairying will in a few years be a thing of the past in this eolony, lor hero the eost of production is enormously enhanced by the high rate of wages paid. The Siberian farmer, for instance!. pays his milkers about live or .six shillings a week, as against the twen-ty-live to thirty shillings per week demanded by the able-bodied male milkers in this colony. In conclusion I would ask : When are we gong to make an ett'ort to make the ways of the ' butter faker ' less pleasant than they are at present, and so conserve the interests of the producers of this colony, for whom the Government have already done so much to foster and develop this trade < At present we are spending [some iIG,-COO per annum to aid the dairy formers of this country, who ale threatened with annihilation. J feel sure that the Government will, with their usual readiness to assist the fanners of this colony, take prompt action to frustrate the designs of these tiad-