BUTTER-FAT TAX.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1917, Page 6

BUTTER-FAT TAX.

To the Edito. - . Sir, —A petition is being circulated by tlia directorate of the Stratford Dairy Co., and I presume also by other butter factories and cheese factories, to endeavor to get the tax removed and the amount colected refunded, but no other scheme is put forward on the petition fo compensate the dairy eompanvs which have supplied the New Zealand trade, and the Government has made it quite plain they will pay no compensation out of the Consolidated Fund. I would advise all suppliers to butter-faetories to carefully consider the position before signing the petition, for, if the request, of the petition is given effect to, we who have supplied New Zealand with cheap butter will find that we will receive far less for our butter fat than those who have exported the greater part of their butter and those who have supplied cheese factories. I consider all suppliers to butter factories would be very foolish to sign any petition for ihe abolition and refund of the bntter-fnt tax unless provision is made in some way to compensate those who Supply the local markets, as it seems quite certain the Government will restrict the price of butter for the retail trade in New Zealand until the end of the war. So far I am in sympathy with the cheese factories in the position in which the tax has placed them, but before assisting in the removal of the tax I would like to see tliem also put forward a scheme to compensate those who must supply the local trade at a less price than'it brings on the Home market—l am, etc., H. A. HUNT. Robson Road, 21/5/17.