BUTTER PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 213, 8 September 1926, Page 15

BUTTER PRICES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —What has gone wrong with the London market ? This time last year, when the wily old speculator looked after the selling of our butter, the prioe was 208/. llany butter factories had been able to make f.o.b. sales of their output! tc November and December at from 1/7 to 1/7s, f.0.b., and nearly half the season's output of cheese was sold at from 9d to 9id, f.o.b. Advances on con=icrnmpn:s were at the rate of V 6 per ib fur butter. This year the market is reported demoralised" at 160/ for butter. Dairy companies have been prohibited from making f.o.b. sales oy the "all wise"' Control Board, and Consignment advances are announced at the rate of 1/4 per Ib for butter, and even this modest figure may have to be reviewed on account of the" state of the market! While the board may urge that the present disastrous state of affairs is due to the miners' strike, stored stocks, and the increase in the quantity sent to Britain by Denmark owing to the latter country" being shut out of America, it is well to bear in mind that the unemployed in Britain are only a quarter of a million more than last year, that the stored stocks m London do not exceed the quantity rtored -there this time last year, and Wβ* the increase in Danish supply is

offset bj the decrease in Xew Zealand and Australian make. If, then, all these factors fail to provide an adequate explanation of the debacle, what then. 13 the cause ? Is it the shadow of abso ! i'ite control? N"o excuses can absolve i "he Control Board from the disastrous : blunder they made in compelling the dairy companies to give up f.o.b. selling. If this season the companies had been •tllowed to make f.o.b. sales as of yore, they wouli have been enabled to make 1 advances to their supplier; without fear ■i reclamation. Those who remember the glib statements made by the advo-'•ate-5 of control in regard to improved marketing ny: c * '"><?■ appalled by the result - far, '- 1..;* what every dairy f.ir".:pr in X •' v Zealand has been paying .1 tribute ' ' ''■■'' bianl or 2Jii on every -r-n-^i! 1 in ftin of erpam made into butter , r , ;: :e.-e mi.: ■.xported for the last two veara for? It is true that the board warned farmer* not to expect ■"■ut it is rr.iir'.'fy hard lurk when you !iavt» been paying your money for p -ii m*r % to'ii'sspin instead. What does r!ie Reform Government think of it? [- p*>rmittod the board to gamble with the dairy companies" business and at the dairy companies' expense, whether "he companies approved of compulsory control nr r.oi. Xo sympathy or compensation 13 needed in the case of dairy who advocated compulsion. but what of the unfortunate dairy companies who opposed it, and who, but for the board's prohibition, would hnv sold their outputs f.0.b.? Judging from the plight of some of our primary industries it may not be long before : the only one we have left will be the making of control boards, and, unfortunately, these have no market value.—l am, etc., HAYSEED.