LOCAL MARKET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 247, 18 October 1934, Page 10

LOCAL MARKET.

BUTTER AND CHEESE. CONTROL BY DAIRY BOARD. " HIDDEN SAVINGS." "To give effect to the scheme for rationalisation of the local marketing of butter and cheese," states the report of the Dairy Industry Commission, "it is recommended that the Dairy Produce Control Board be empowered to control the marketing within -New Zealand of butter and cheese, and that it be given the same full powers in respect of butter and cheese marketed locally as are given to it in respect of butter and cheese intended for export from New Zealand, and that the board be given power in particular: — "To prohibit the sale on the local market of butter and cheese by owners of dairy factories and wholesale distributors, except under license granted by the board. "To require the owner of any dairy factory from time to time to supply for the local market such quantities of butter and cheese of such grades as the board may consider necessary. "To limit from time to time the area within which the butter and/or cheese manufactured in any dairy factory may be marketed. "To require that all patted creamery butter be correctly wrapped and labelled according to grade, that all creamery butter sold in bulk be correctly described by impressed brand on both box and butter, and that whey butter be distinguished from all other butter by such means as the board may deem proper. "To fix from time to time the minimum wholesale prices to be charged for butter and chcese by licensees, and to fix discounts, commissions and other concessions, and in the interests of the

industry to prohibit any marketing practices that it may consider to be unfair or undesirable. Levy on Factories. "To levy on owners of dairy factories in respect of butter and cheese marketed within New Zealand at such rates . as the board, with the approval of the Governor-General in Council, may from time to time determine, and to add the amount of such levy to the amount of the levy made under the provisions of " section 15 of the existing Act, and to f retain such part of the proceeds of such E levies as it may require for the purposes s set out in paragraphs (a) to (e) of sec- ; tion 17 of the existing Act, and for any I other purposes recommended in this re- . port, and to distribute the remainder to all owners of dairy factories in accord--1 ance with their total outputs of butter ' and cheese respectively. The board may 1 keep separate accounts for the North and South Islands respectively. "To terminate, on giving such notice as the Dairy Produce Control Board may deem reasonable, any contract for the sale of dairy produce intended for consumption in New Zealand. "To arrange for the grading of butter and cheese for sale on the local market by the licensing of managers or other officers of factories to carry out such grading, in accordance with such standards and subject to such conditions as the board may determine, and by such other means as the board may determine. "It has been proposed that the finance for a comprehensive policy of qualityimprovement should be obtained by the Dairy Produce Control Board, from the savings that would accrue to it under the suggested scheme of marketing control. It is estimated that the elimination of wasteful marketing methods, and the retention by the board of the 'hidden savings' now distributed amongst the factories supplying the local market, would yield to the board approximately Id per "lb on butter locally sold. ' This would represent a total of about £240,000 per annum at the present level of local consumption.

g Building up Reserve. c "We have elsewhere in this report shown that approximately £288,700 per annum will be required to finance a g quality-improvement and tuberculosis- •- eradication policy, and to provide addis tional funds for advertising; but that e during the initial three years of n the tuberculosis-eradication campaign e £150,000 of the £288,700 will not be_ required. The annual yield from savings effected by the proposed local marketf ing control policy will therefore not o only meet all expenses of the board 6 li operations for some time to come, but Uiable a reserve to be built up. " "We are of the opinion that the utilisation in this manner of savings realised by the operations of tli© board " is justified while butter prices are so 0 low and dairy fajrmers are in serious " financial difficulties. We recommend, 1 however, that, when and for so long [ as the London price of butter stands at 1 or above 100/ per hundredweight in New Zealand currency, and the London price 3 of cheese stands at a corresponding level, f the incidence of local and export levies 2 should be so adjusted as to return to • consumers, in the form of lower prices, the whole or part of the savings effected r tinder the scheme" of local marketing t lontrol.' r "With regard to control of the local 1 marketing of cheese, it is recommended - that action be deferred until* the butter s rationalisation scheme has been estabi lished."