THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 437, 20 May 1899, Page 4

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sis,—Your leader on the Dairy Industry in your Saturday's issue was in many respects most unlair to Mr Spragg, and contained several statements which are distinctly untrue. For example, you state that Messrs Ambury and English offered better termsthan the suppliers have yet enjoyed, either in the days of Mr Reynolds or since the Dairy Association took over the business Now, it is a fact, wl ich every one of the suppliers are acquainted with, and which has been repor ed in your paper, that the suppliers at Te Awamutu creamery arc getting for the present season 7 l-16tha of a penny or near y a yd per lb. more for their butter fat than the price offered them by the firm you mention, and, more over, that the price was distinctly offered last November if the supply reached a certain quantity, months before the name of Ambury or English was ever mentiotv.din connection with the industry iu this district. Again, you say, that Mr Spragg has promised practically the same terms as Messrs Ambury and Englaud. How can S]-d per lb. be practically the same terms as 7sd, the price offered by Messrs Ambury and English. Mr Spragg's price at the smallest creamery is per lb., and on the basis of Lst year's supply, most of the creameries in the district will be entitled to one or the other of the higher price?, 7|J, Sd or Sjd. 1 am sure every supplier who listened to the clear and straightforward explanation of Mr Spragg was satisfied that most of the friction aud misunderstanding, which has taken place in the district, was the direct result of just such misrepresentation as I complain of in your leading article, and many of the suppliers about Te Awimutu are today regretting about being misled and trapped into selling their butter-fat for nearly |d per lb less than they received this season and ijd per lb less than they could, have had from Mr Spragg in the coming season. Regarding Mr Hunt's philanthropic measures on our behalf, I should like to ask you straight if it is tiue, as has been publicly stated; (1) That Mr Hunt's arrangemets with the Union was to buy our butter-fat at per lb, aud pocket the difference, between that price and 9d. the price he demanded from Lovell and Christmas, for the same butter in the same place, namely Wellington ; (2) That in addition to that fractional -}d per lb, amounting to £IOOO per annum, he demanded from Lovell and Christmas a further rebate of one per cent., which on a return of £40,0.0 to £60,000 in the season, would have given him another £4OO to £6OO per annum. These two items taken together, would mean about £I6OO per year, and if this be true it is easy to understand his generous offer to manage the business without a salary, and also to use his own words " where do I come in. It is certain that the Waikato has suffered severely by these dangerous, and damaging misrepresentations which have gone about, but the clear and upright statements oi Mr Spragg at our creamery meeting, which I presume were repeated at other places, have shown conclusively that the responsibility for their misrepresentation and their results does not rest with Mr Spragg. The whole district ought to be thankful to Mr Spragg for his careful and efficient management of the business, which his enabled his company to pay prices for milk in the past which have been a great boon to the district and gradually worked up to the ideal prices which we have all along been contending for. —I am, etc., A Waikato Milk Supplier. Ngaruawahia, 15th May, 1899.