SEEK INQUIRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 120, 22 May 1937, Page 7

SEEK INQUIRY.

WINTER MILK SUPPLY. REQUEST TO MINISTER. COST OF PRODUCTION. A request to the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, for an inquiry into the price paid to producers for the town milk supplied to Auckland, with a view to making it possible for the producers to receive at least the cost of production for the winter months, has been ipacle by the Auckland Wholemilk Producers' Association. "The producers are now in a very unsettled mood, and the executive urgee you to take immediate action/ , stated the letter. Yesterday the association expressed to the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council its wish that the power of the council should be extended to .give it full control of the whole of the milk supply in its area. Early in April a joint general meeting of the association, together with others interested in the production and distribution of milk for Auckland, had been held, the letter stated. At this meeting a determined effort had been made to threaten the Milk Council with a stoppage of the supply of milk if the price to the producer was not increased to 1/ a gallon at the farm gate. The association, however, had counselled constitutional method*, and had been successful in stopping the threat being made. Appeal Course Rejected. The executive of the association, to which the matter had been left, had considered what action could be taken. An appeal to the Court, for which there is provision under the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Act, 1933, had __ been considered, but this course was rejected. It was stated that the decision in a case taken under this provision in 1934 had proved unsatisfactory to the producer concerned. The attendance of a deputation from the association on the Milk Council was followed last month by the council's decision to make the following increases in the winter prices to the producers: Milk, to be sold as milk. 9Jd to lid a gallon; milk for cream, t'xl to 10d. "These are winter prices," said the letter, "and for such milk as is used for the purpose specified only. It results in an average price of from 7d to Sd per gallon, on considerably less than the 9d per gallon for all milk produced on the farm. This in itself was a step ahead for the producer, but not sufficient to give him the cost of production, which is now generally estimated at 9d per gallon at the farm gate for all the milk produced on the farm all the year round. Consumer Price. "With the present unsatisfactory system of treating and distribution the only way to satisfy the producer supplying winter milk would be for the Auckland Metropolitan Milk Council to increase the price to the consumer, a course they are definitely opposed to taking." Under the Act as it was at present the council has not sufficient power to control the supply of milk, and therefore could not give the producer of j winter milk the protection necessary j for him to grow milk at that time of the year at a price which would recompense him for the damage done to his pastures, the reduced quantity given by cows coming to profit at that time, and the production of stored food for winter. With further powers the council could license only those producers willing , to arrange their herds to produce a maximum of winter milk and a minimum of surplus in the flush feed periods.