BUTTER DISPOSAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 May 1922, Page 4

BUTTER DISPOSAL.

HOME BUYER’S STATEMENT. AS TO PURCHASE FROM GOVERNMENT. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. • London, May 17. Butter importers greatly resent the criticisms which have appeared in Australia and New Zealand regarding their purchases of the Government stocks, especially the suggestion that they depressed the market and raised it after the purchase had been completed in order to get exorbitant profits. Interviewed by the correspondent of’ the Australian Press Association one leading importer said: “The real facts are these. The butter was retailed throughout the country at from lOd to Is 4d per lb., with the result that the consumption rose from 2500 tons weekly to between 5000 and 6000 tons, the demand being so great that huge supplies of new butter were also readily cleared. The prices for this butter have never looked back, but if the prices of 'butter generally had been maintained the consumption would have been so small that the Australian and New Zealand producers would have suffered seriously in regard to this season’s output,. . as the collapse which was created by | the British Treasury forcing the sale would have come much later, when the accumulations would have been considerably heavier, and the loss acordinglyj so much greater.

“The importers transferred the bulk of the Government butter to the big retail combinations for a merely nominal commission. The accusations levelled at the importers are altogether erroneous and false. The Board of Trade did not sell at the request of any individual or combination of importer* but only at the extreme pressure of thtf Treasury officials.” <