CHEESE COMMANDEER.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1917, Page 8

CHEESE COMMANDEER.

QUESTION IX HOUSE OF COMMONS. STATEMENT BY HON. W. D. S. MACDONALD. In the House of Commons, on March fi, Mr Will Tliornc, M.P., asked whether the Imperial Government is paying O'/od for' New Zealand cheese, though the Dairy Association in August offered the entire output at S%d, and the Government refused the offer? Whether the Government is aware that the difference represents a loss qf £3iiO,O!)o, and that as a consequence Canadian cheese has risen to 'lsos per cwt and to IGOs, while the New Zealand price is 102s? Whether the Government intends to take action heeause Canadian and English manufacturers are getting £">o per ton more? On his attention being directed to | the matter by a "Times" reported, the Hon. W. D. S. Macdonald (Minister for Agriculture and Commerce) stated that the complaint about the recent increase in price did not refer to New Zealand cheese, and was purely a matter for the Imperial Government. So far as the New Zealand producers were concerned, the position was that at ,the dTltset the British Government opened negotiations with New Zealand for the acquisition of the whole of the Dominion's output of cheese at Sd per lb for Army purposes. The producers, however, asked SVsd per lb, which the Home authorities considered too high, and tho negotiations fell through. The Imperial Government required ore beef and wether mutton for troops, and when they corild not get sufficient meat they had to fall back upon cheese. The Home authorities then commandeered New Zealand cheese at that end, and' made an offer for cheese still left in the Dominion, The New Zealand Government suggested that in the interests of the producers of the Dominion the British Government secure the whole of the seaScn's output, and this was agreed upon, the price being ultimately fixed at 9'/z& per lb, >