THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1916, Page 2

THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

, GOVERNMENT FIXES 11ATE. BOARD OF TRADE'S SCHEME TO BE EN FORCED. Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 14. The maximum wholesale price of butter for consumption within New Zealand is fixed at Is 4d per pound by an order under the Regulation of Trade and Commerce Aot, 1014, issued in a Gazette Extrar-V-iiirary to-night. The retail price, under this arrangement, will not exceed Is 7*l per pound. The same Gazette contains a. regulation requiring firms or companies engaged in the manufacture of butter or cheese to pay to the Board of Trade a. levy at the rate of three farthings pet pound of butter fut used, the money to be used to Compensate sellers of butter for any loss incurred in disposing l of their product for local consumption instead of for export. "The maximum wholesale price of butter as sold by the manufacturer and delivered in boxes at the factory on the usual trade as established at tile date of this Order in Council," says the regulation, "shall be 149s 4d per hundredweight. "In the ease of tatter sold by the manufacturer otherwise than for delivery at the factory in 'boxes on the usual trade terms aforesaid, the maximum wholesale price thereof shall he a price equivalent, as regards the seller, to the maximum price above mentioned. "In the ease of butter sold otherwise than by the manufacturer, and whether wholesale or retail, the maximum price thereof shall he the maximum price mentioned above with such increase only as in acordance with the established custom of the trade as existing at the date of this Order in Council with' respect to the relation between the price of butter as sold, and the wholesale price of butter at the factory. "Nothing in this Order-in-Council ?hall

apply to butter by the purchaser for exportation and not for consumption or use in New Zealand:" The effect of these rules is to V.xit the retail price within New Zealand to Is 7d per pound, but it may be possible ip some cases for retailers to sell below that level.

The regulations regarding the levy upon butter fat provide that no butter or cheese shall be exported from New Zealand unless it has been manufactured at a factory, in respect of which an export license lias been issued. Export licenses will be issued by a Government officer, and their issue will be conditional upon the holders undertaking to pay to the Crown a charge of threefarthings per pound of butter fat "on all fat consumed by the license holder in the manufactuie of butter or cheese at any factory or factories" since August 31, lMfi. The amount of the charge may be varied 'by the Bo4rd of Trade. The money so collected will be used to cover the cost of administering the scheme, and to compensate license holders "for any loss incurred by them in disposing of butter of their owr manufacture for home consumption instead of for export, during any period in respect of which the charge of butter fat has been paid by them." The decision of the Board of Trade with regard to the expenditure of i/onev will be final. The regulation does not apply to whey butter, or to milled butter, or to farmers' dairy butter or cheese.

1 AN INGLEWOOD PROTEST,

At the annual meeting of the Intjlewood Bacon Company on Saturday, which was attended by representative dairy farmers' firom practically the whoie of North Taranaki, a resolution was passed strongly protesting against the action of the Board of Trade in fixing the sale price of butter in NewZealand.

•Mr. Arthur Morton, the chairman, in introducing the subject, said it was one of great importance to all dairy factory shareholders. After giving the details of the Government scheme (already published), he said the Minister of Agriculture had invited twenty-five of the leading dairy factory' representatives in the Dominion to meet the Board of Trade and himself in conference. The discussion lasted from 1.30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The dairy representatives were firm and would concede liothuig. Though they had been asked to meet in conference, he was of opinion that the whole thing had been previously cut and dried. The maximum price had been fixed at Is 4d and it was also proposed to make a levy on every dairy factory to make up the loss to the butter factory that supplied the local .market. This difference at present was 3d per lb, the difference between Is 4d and the present f.o.b. price of Is 7d realised on consigning to London. This levy meant a payment of three farthings per lb butter fat. It was, he affirmed, a very unjust principle to tax the primarmy producers so t'hat the whole community, whether wealthy, well-to-do, middle-class, n - poor worker, could get the benefit of cheaper butter. A more arbitrary, more unjust, or more unfair tax eouid not be imposed in times like these. To penalise one class for the whole was unsound and unfair in principle and would rtlleet discredit on those who instituted the scheme. He asked them to enter an emphatic protest against such a wrong principle. It was no use attempting to influence 1 he Board of Trade and Cabinet, whose minds were already made up, but tiiey i-ould protest against such arbitrary treatment and bear the matter in mind, when they had a chance of expressing their views in another way. Mr Geo Capper wanted to know if the (ioveniment would pay the secretaries of the dairy companies for the extra work involved' in making the required returns. The chairman said that they would not. This, he ad'ded, was only one of the injustices. Mr J. O. Taylor considered that it was a case of robbing the butter manufacturers in order to secure votes. He moved that Bins representative meeting of dairy factory suppliers in the Inglewood and adjoining districts enters an emphatic protest against the action of the Government in fixing a limit on the local price of butter, and regards such action as wrong in principle, unjust in its working, and a hardship on the dairy farmers of the Dominion, and that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the Board of Trade, members of the Cabinet, and local members of Parliament. This was seconded by Mr A. Chard. Mr R. T. Williams, in supporting, said that the average family use 31b of butter per week. At 2d per lb the saving would onb be Gd per week. That is, the woman of the house could go to the pictures one night each week, or the husband could get his pint of beer, but the concesions hit tSie dairy farmer very hard. The wholesale merchant, who

made as much in one month out of the war us tlu; dairy fartnei did in twelve months, Jiad -not iioen touched. Mi <-'. 'Old did no' see why Mie cheese factory suppliers should have to pay %d per II) liutter fat to inula' up tlie loss on butler. Mr Yo.ites contended that the extra few pence per lb received for butterfat was all that the dairy farmer had got to meet the. increased expenditure owing fo the war, in the shape of increased cost of barbed . wire, roofing iron, manure, kerosene, etc. He considered it most unjust. In reply to Mr B-ikewell, the chairman said Cabinet was unanimous that the proposal must go through. The resolution was then carried unanimously.