BUTTER OUTPUT.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1920, Page 4

BUTTER OUTPUT.

| QUESTIONS FOR PRODUCERS. [ AN OBSCURE POSITION,. The greatest uncertainty prevails as te the possibilities of the butter market for next year (says yesterday's Dominion). The Government is not concerned in the matter at all, because the representatives of the butter producers intimated to the Prime Minister that, they would not agree to anything but a free market, and since then the Government has had nothing to do with the business of the sale of the next season's output. The position about the sail of thif butter is extremely obscure. It is not at all clear from the cablegrams whether or not the control in England is going to continue next summer and winter. The indications are that it will continue. If this should prove to be so, then the ne-' gotiations for the sale of our butter mean nothing at all, because the butter on arrival in England will become the property of the British Government, .and all contracts will be voided. TMb difficulty is quite well recognised among the butter producers, and a fuller realisation of its importance is grasped by some than by others. There is some evidence of this in the rumor that there is difference ot' opinion between sections of the producers on this question of sale to the Bri* tish Government, or, on the other h|W»d, free market. Some of the producers ft:e said to be in favor of a sale to the government, on terms to be arranged, for it has already been announced that Che British Government did offe* to negotiate with the New Zealand producers, As a matter of fact, it is now common knowledge that all the producers ofmeat and wool and other products requisitioned during the war years are not nearly so pleased with the prospect of a free market ns they were some months ago, before it was quite certain that the commandeer was to cease. There is no new* about the cheese market next season, except that the British Government will not be a buyer. '