BUTTER PRICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22774, 7 July 1937, Page 15

BUTTER PRICE

NECESSARY INCREASE

EFFECT OF HIGHER COSTS OVER 3£D ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATION BY COMPANY [from our owx correspondent] HAMILTON, Tuesday A special committee appointed by the Xew Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited, has investigated the rising costs required to be met by dairy farmers, and has found that the additional payment over and above the present guaranteed price necessary to compensate them for these costs would be 3.518 d per lb. butter-fat. The committee in its finding reported:—"To give the producer the return lie would have received had costs not risen after the guaranteed prico was fixed, the payment for butter-fat should now be: The guaranteed price last season, plus 3.5185 d per lb. butter-fat, made up as follows: —(a) 2.197 d to 2.305 d for increased wages costs; (b) .409 d for increased maintenance costs; (c) .<1628d for increased costs from farm to f.0.b.; (d) .342 d to cover present wage charges above the minimum prescribed by the Agricultural Workers Act, making a total minimum increase of 3.4108 d." The report states that the average present wage of all dairy farm workers has increased by 13s lOd a week above the average for the ten years 1926-1935 inclusive. The total wages of the 81,000 employees and working owners in the dairy industry prior to October, 1936, are given as £6,580,000, and with the wages now paid, £12,188,797, an increase of £5,608,197, or 85.1 per cent of the 1935 figures.

"Factory costs, transport costs and freezing charges have all shown alarming increases since the introduction of the guaranteed price, higher wages, and shorter working hours," says the report. "The increase of £3 lis Id a ton for butter works out at .3809 d per lb. butter, or .4628 d per lb. butter-fat for buttermaking. "If wages are increased, each increase of 5s a week will necessitate a further increase of two-thirds of a penny in the guaranteed price. We consider the industry as a whole is forced to pay 2s 6d a week above the minimum prescribed by the Agricultural Workers Act, and we thus have a further charge of .342 d per lb. butter-fat. The price should bo fixed for one year only."