PRICE OF BUTTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1921, Page 5

PRICE OF BUTTER.

COMMITTEE MEETS NEXT WEEK. PRESENT ARRANGEMENT • EXPLAINED. By Telegraph.—Ptes? Association. Wellington, Last Night. The retail grocers were represented at a meeting held by the Board of Trade with reference to the retail price of butter, and the Director of Agriculture was present. The case for the retailer was put before the board. A conference is to be held in Wellington next week, called by the Dominion Butter and Cheese Committee, and representatives of the Government will be present. The question to be discussed will be the price of butter. Ito the meantime the subsidy of 3d per pound ia continued to dairy companies supplying the local market from factories, and the payment of fid per pound on butter taken for Wellington consumption from Imperial Government stocks.

FROM THE PRODUCERS’ VIEWPOINT RECENT HAPPENINGS DISCUSSED. Several points in news telegrams and cable messages on the subject of butter were referred to on Thursday by Mr. T. C. Brash, secretary of the National Dairy Association. “Some grocers in different parts of New Zealand,” said Mr. Brash, “appear to have- an impression that butter producers have attempted to dictate the price at which shopkeepers would sell butter. This is not the case. The fact is that the producers, at the meetings of last week, merely suggested the possibility of a uniform retail price of 2s fid if, the wholesale cash price of pats wae 2s 4d uniformly throughout the Dominion. There was no intention whatever among the producers to fix absolutely the grocers’ prices.” Cabled reports from Australia, he added, had mentioned a reduction of prices, but in connection with these messages it was important to take into account the fact that the consumers of the Commonwealth were not subsidised like those of the Dominion. During the period of the Imperial Government’s contract the great majority of Australian consumers had to pay a considerably higher price than the New Zealand consumers, whose butter was purchased at Cd per lb below the market value. Another important fact was the difference in quality between the Australian and New Zealand butter. Recent reports showed that the difference was assessed by the Imperial authorities at 2d per lb in favor of the New Zealand article. In- the achievement of this standard of quality New Zealand producers, acting on the good advice of the Agricultural Department, had gone to great expense in the establishment of first-class herds and in the installation of up-to-date machinery. The main point in the butter question from the producers’ viewpoint was a parity value for milk for butter by comparison with the returns obtainable from cheese, dried milk, or milk for ordinary household use. The present value of milk for cheese was equal to 2s 6d per lb of butter fat, and for dried milk the return was equal to 2s Od per lb of butter-fat. Contracts for winter milk had been made by the Wellington City Council at 2s per gallon, which was equal to 4s per lb of butter-fat at the factory. Continuing, Mr. Brash said: “The Prime Minister stated at the big conference of producers on March 31 that ‘if the producers were compelled to take lower prices then the cost of production must be lowered.’ It is estimated that the increased cost of production of winter butter is 25 £er cent. Why, then, should the producers be expected to accept less for butter made after April 1 than for butter made before April 1? At the same conference Mr. said truly, as New Zealand people have good reason to know at present, that ‘upon the prosperity of the producing Industries would depend the prosperity of the Dominion as a whole.’ Other remarks of the Prime Minister were: ‘The year was going to be one of financial difficulty for the producer.’ ‘He would impress upon the producers the necessity of producirig—and producing the very best.’ The producers of butter have striven to produce the very best, and they expect reasonable encouragement to continue in that course. They wish to be /fair to the public, but they have to be fair, also, to themselves. They believe that the basis of price fixed at the meetings of last week represented a fair and square deal for producers and consumers alike. When representatives of the producers meet the Prime Minister again within the next few aays they hope to satisfy him and to satisfy the public that they have not asked for an unreasonable price for winter butter.”