A WEATHER SIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 27, 1 February 1921, Page 4

A WEATHER SIGN.

: M I Yesterday's messages about the prices and stocks of butter and cheese should J be a weather sign plain for all men to read. "A further steep decline" is anticipated in butter prices in England after the Government control is removed in two months' time. The Government's stocks are mounting, and even now greatly exceed the demand. At the same time lower prices for cheese are foreshadowed, and -supplies are piling up in New Zealand. The general purchasing power of the consumer" in Britain is 'beieg lowered by the depression in trade, with its movement towards lower wages and unemployment; and he will therefore not be able to pay the •prices he has been giving for our products. At the same time there will , apparently be much larger supplies available. The movement of the margarine nfarket is important. We may again point out the extent to which high prices for butter during the last few years have been the opportunity for the margarine maker. Weddei's latest report estimates the British supplies in 1914-15 at butter 240,000 tons, and margarine 197,000 tons, whereas in 1919-20 butter had fallen to 130,000 tons, and margarine risen to 360.000 tons. The price of margarine is now falling in sympathy with the prices of copra and : seed oils, and at the lower figures it . will compete still more seriously, in '; the Dear future at any rate, with butter. ; The Sew Zealand producer must be pre- ! pared for lower prices, and those who .' have been foolish enough to buy dairy

land, at high 'S-gures in the expectation that the ruling prices of butter and cheese would ba permanent may feel the pinch severely. Incidentally some of j tho purchases of land for soldiers at j high figures will be tested, and soon at that. The outlook is another argument for public and private economy.