THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1912. MARKETING OF PRODUCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 4 December 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1912. MARKETING OF PRODUCE.

Many months ago this paper brought pointedly under the notice of those engaged in the,dairying industry the ■ importance of' extending the co-opera-tive system to the disposal of produce, instead.of pursuing haphazard methods which place the trade almost completely at the mercy of buyers at the other end. We had -hoped that tho National Dairy Association would have given this matter its serious attention. Apparently, however, it will require a year or two of low prices to bring home to those engaged in the industry the paramount importance of concerted action. ' The experience of the present season is likely to cause producers to think. As the Farmers' Union Advocate points out, last sea'son solliiig was the common policy (a heavy losing business to the companies) ; this year consignment is tiie popular method, and now apparently the change of policy is to prove as disastrous.as tho opposite system' was last season. It is evident whichever system is the -more advisable that the ■farmer cannot play fast and loose with a groat body of keen business men, as .British produce merchants undoubtedly are, without having to pay for it. Last year when the Homo people controlled our produce, there was every inducement for them to maintain tho prices of Now Zealand butter; this year, after spending money by sending representatives to tho Dominion, they failed to secure a continuance of the business they enjoyed last year, and therefore have not only uq inducement to maintain prices for our produce, but it is to their interest to push butters which they hare puroJiased earlier in the season at high values and incidentally to teacfc New Zealand shippers a lesson. Of oourso, bb!« Falling Talues aro not entirely dua t# this, tit* main roasc* boiag fc%» old on« of supply and denmmfr far! ttoe present groat dis-

parity between New Zealand ;i"d Danish values (X.Z. 114s to 116s, Danish 1295), is probably largely clue to the absence of pushing tactics on the market on behalf of our butter, let alone the possibility of "bearing" tat*, tics. Some years back when colonial butter soared to a great Height for a certain period, a decided reason for the continuance nf the record values

was that a high proportion of our butter was held by a speculative firm, which purchased (at times through the assistance of London managers of Victorian co-operative marketing companies) every pound of our butter reaching the market which it was not controlling. There is undoubtedly something in the contention of a keen student of the business that it will

always pay to sell a portion of our butter and cheeso and consign the rest, in order to give the London merchant an inducement to maintain values and to secure the consequent advantage for the consignment portion. One thing is certain. New Zealand producers will have little assistance from the trade this season in the upholding of the market for their produce. They refused good offers at tho beginning of the season, and

now the men they refused to sell to are out to buy their supplies at the Home end as cheaply as they can.