DOMINION PRODUCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 43, 20 February 1940, Page 4

DOMINION PRODUCE.

MANCHESTER FACILITIES. 1 MORE ECONOMIC AND BAFE. < NEW ZEALAND INTERESTS. MANCHESTER, January 16. The advantages of Manchester as an unloading port for produce, better conditions for the distribution of New Zealand and other imported produce in Britain, and dissatisfaction with the butter rationing scheme were the chief subjects dealt with in the recent annual report of the produce section of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. The international situation, the report says, had justified the efforts of the section over a long period to impress upon overseas shippers to Britain the advantages of Manchester as an unloading port for foodstuffs intended for consumption •in this area. During the year the executive committee of the section continued to work for a more economic and safer system of distribution of imported produce, particularly that supplied l>y New Zealand. The committee submitted a scheme by which the services, experience and goodwill of Manchester importing houses could be more freely placed at the disposal of the New Zealand authorities. After discussion with Mr. H. E. Davis, London manager of the New Zealand Government's Dairy Sales Division and his colleagues amendments were introduced, but even with these alterations the New Zealand marketing authorities found themselves unable to agree to make changes which would meet the views of the committee until they could devise some method of overcoming certain obstacles which had grown up with the existing system. The committee also recQrded that some classes of distributors were dissatisfied with the scheme for butter rationing, which, based on maximum prices, cut across the established interests of many firms.