DISPOSAL OF DAIRY PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1920, Page 2

DISPOSAL OF DAIRY PRODUCE.

ARRANGEMENT WITH CW.S. a l SCHEME OUTLINED BY MR. H. D. ; FORSYTH. l! ' ' !' There was a large attendance of sliare--1 holders of the Elthain Co-operative Dairy r Company at a special meeting held at Eltham on Saturday last to hear the report of the committee set up some time e ago to make enquiries concerning the y 0 proposed arrangement with the Co-oper-,r ative Wholesale Society of England for d the marketing of their produce. The • scheme, he said, would mean the forma--2 tion of a company among the dairy facr tories in New Zealand on the same basis T . as the Egmont Box Company, the factories taking up one share each for every £ lOOOlbs of butter-fat manufactured durU ing the year. This would be followed by - the formation of a second company in *. Britain and New Zealand, which second j company would comprise two shareholdt ers, one of the first mentioned New [> Zealand Producers' Company and the ,'_ other the Co-operative Wholesale Society. f This combined company would have a ■ nominal capital of £IOO,OOO, but it was e anticipated that not more than £IO,OOO s would be called up, it being expected that J this would prove sufficient for their puri, pose. From this combined company a 5 control board would be appointed, comj\ prised of an equal number of members . from the Producers' Company and the 1 CW.S- Further, a price-fixing commit- ,' tee would be set up, composed of repre- . sentatives from both companies, but with l a majority from the New Zealand producers. They expected ,to get the same | r advance against documents as previous- ? ly, one-half to be provided by the proj ducers, and the other by the CW.S. i A commission would be charged for | handling all goods, but there was a stipu- , lation 'that this should not exceed 2J , per cent. If .there were any profits made ' from this commission it would be divided ' equally between the Producers Company • and the CW.S. The chairman added that there was , another point not generally understood i and this he wished to make quite clear, [ viz., it this combined company was forni- . Ed it was not for the purpose of selling ; their produce to the "C.W-S. They were [ under no obligation to sell to the CW.S., . neither was the CW.S. under any obli- ; gation to purchase from them. Their i produce was simply consigned to the Control Board, who would dispose of it in > the best market and to the best advanr tage to the producers. Many would im- ' mediately ask what benefit the CW.S. expected to gain under these circumstances. The advantage to the. CW.S. | would be that of procuring their requirements first-hand instead of through Too- ' ley Street. She delays caused by tha handlijg of their produce by the Tooley i Street speculators often had a very de- [ teriorating effect upon it, and, further, • the middlemen's profits would be cut I out. Both the producers and the CW.S. were most anxious to cut out these niid- , dlemen and the profits they made at the I expense of the producers and consumers. | In reply to questions, Mr. Forsyth said i the CW.S. had given a guarantee to bear ! half the expense irrespective of whether | they bought the New Zealand produce or not. No period jot term of any descrip- ; tion had been placed on the agreement | between the producers and the CW.S., but the agreement could only come into force at the expiration of the Imperial ! commandeer, when they were allowed to : sell upon the open market. Had they been selling their produce under this , scheme for the past five years; added the i chairman, they would have saved at least • a quarter of a millio nsterling per annum ; throughout that period. The CW.S. was, he said, a federation of societies. They controlled a huge number of shops and ; also factories. They were the largest tea distributors, boot manufacturers and ■ flourmillers in Britain, and they were manufacturers of many other lines. Their turnover during the past year was over two hundred millions sterling. In reply to another question, Mr. Forsyth said to put the whole matter "into a nutshell" it meant that they would now have their own selling floor. In the past they had been unable to obtain this through lack of the necessary finance, and also lack of the equally necessary distributing outlets. The CW.S. was supplying both these wants. In answer to another questioner rsgarding the risk of the CW.S. "bearing" the market,' the chairman eaid the CW.S. was not a speculative concern. Its shareholders in the federated societies comprised thousands of small" shareholders. and the society would place the New Zealand produce in its own shops and stores. At present it handled about 30,000 tons of butter annually, including the whole of the Danish output of butter, and was prepared to reduce its purchase and retailing of that butter in order to put the New Zealand product on its counters-*-where it would be sold as New Zealand produce. This would be another %ig advantage, as it was a well-known fact that at the present time New Zealand produce could not be purchased as such in England. , _ The Eltham Dairy Company's liability in the proposed company would be £2OOO, Mr. Forsyth added, but they would only be asked to contribute about £2OO. This was a very small amount compared with the £SOOO they had contributed to Tooley Street during the nasi few years. In explaining the reason for the negotiations with the CW.S. being kept from the Press, Mr. Forsyth said one fact that, was not generally known was that the Tooley Street merchants had recently endeavored to procure a charter for handling New Zealand produce, and had triced to do it without the knowledge of the j New Zealand producers. Had they been I successful they would have fixed the price at which the produce would have been purchased, also the price at which it would have been sold, and would "further have fixed their own commission. They would then havo been able to collect thousands of pounds sterling annually—for doing practically nothing. These merchants had been working very hard to procure this some three or four months before anyone in New Zealand knew anything of it. The producers had therefore been compelled to adopt similar taotics. In conclusion, Mr. Forsyth said at every meeting of dairymen at which this proposal had been explained he w.is pleased to note that the matter had met with unanimous approval. A hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Forsyth for the very interesting infoafiytion provided in his remarks was moved by Mr. J. Cocker and carried by acclamation.—Argus. \