The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1936. DAIRY MARKETING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 183, 4 August 1936, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1936. DAIRY MARKETING.

For the cause that lack." assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

Comments on some of the important aspects of New Zealand's 'dairy marketing experiment were made in interviews yesterday by two well-informed observers, Mr. William Goodfellow and Professor D. B. Copland. Mr. Goodfellow lias a thorough knowledge of the dairying industry, and particularly of the marketing side; he has been long engaged in building up the co-operative system of manufacture and selling, has developed a highly successful marketing organisation with branches in both hemispheres, and lias been largely instrumental in establishing the New Zealand butter trade 011 a consignment basis. Much pioneering work has thus been carried out in the field which the State is now about to enter, but there is one vitally important difference. Commercial marketing has been conducted season by season in accordance with market prices and conditions. Payouts to the farmers have been governed throughout by receipts overseas, and there has never been any attempt to anticipate prices by declarations at this end. There has been no deviation

from this commercially sound principle, and the results have amply attested its wisdom.

The Government's policy, which is now in force and will be fully operative after the announcement of the guaranteed price in the House of Representatives to-niglit, is devised and based on the contrary principle of declaring the price at this end and selling the produce for what it will bring. This is a complete reversal of the methods adopted by the farmers' organisations in the past, and involves in a high degree speculation on the future of the world's markets. Mr. Goodfellow has something to say about the future. After a study of conditions abroad he has formed the opinion that Britain will continue to be the only market of importance for as far ahead as it is necessary to look. There may be an occasional demand from the United States or Canada, due to bad seasons, but in his view 110 permanent trade can be developed there. Of Europe Mr. Goodfellow says little, except to emphasise the difficulties of opening up trade connections in the unsettled conditions of to-day. His advice, then, is that New Zealand should cultivate the British market to the utmost of its powei-s, that is* by reciprocity agreements in favour of British goods and by concentrating its efforts on those classes of production, especially butter and lamb, in which the Dominion excels.

Professor Copland's advice is to keep the guaranteed price in the long run in close relationship with the wbrld market price. This, of course, involves careful year-to-year adjustments of the price to market changes, and therefore a willingness to subordinate other considerations to those of the market. The various complicated factors suggested by the • Government as a future basis for dairy prices have no place in such adjustments. Possibly Mr. Nash may have some remarks to make on the point to-night. The question written across the guaranteed price scheme is, "Does the Government intend the scheme to be completely self-supporting, and, if so, how is this intention to be reconciled to its pricefixing formula?"