DAIRY PRODUCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 156, 3 July 1940, Page 4

DAIRY PRODUCE.

EXPORTS TO BRITAIN.

SELLING CONTRACT TERMS.

X.Z.-AUSTRALIAN DISCUSSION,

Consideration is taking place in Austialia as to the terms on which the Commonwealth contract to sell the surplus of butter to Great Britain should be renewed. The contract expired at the' end of last month, and the "Australian Dairy Review" for .June 19 stated that the Dairy Produce Control Committee and the Australian Dairy Board proposed to call a conference of Australian dairying interests to consider the renewal of the contract in the light of experience gained. The "Review"' also recalled the conference at Canberra, which took place on the same subject between the Australian and Dominion Governments. The specific J object of the conference, the article said, ■ u as to ensure, as far as possible, that the I interests of the Dominion and the Commonwealth should be preserved in any instructions given by the Governments to their respective High Commissioners for guidance when discussing the contracts with the Imperial Government. The New Zealand delegation included Mr. F. A. Duncan. Director of Export Marketing. Mr. F. R. Picot, Director of Internal Marketing, Mr. W. Taylor. \ew Zealand Trade Commissioner in Australia, and Mr. H. N. Innes, private secretary to the Minister for Marketing (Mr. Nash). "A Good Contract." Speaking at the recent conferences of New South Wales dairy factory managers and secretaries, the article continued. Major J. R. King said that although there was a good deal of criticism regarding Australia's butter contract with Great Britain, he would say definitely that it was a good contract. What was more, added Major King, was that every box of butter had been sent away without cost to the producer; and, further, Australia had been able to ship the produce away as fast as the factories had sent it into cold store. He was afraid that in the next 12 months ther<. would be shipping difficulties. Major King suggested that when renewal of the contract was being discussed, consideration should be given to having it made for the duration of the war and 12 months thereafter. The additional year would give the industry a chance to settle down. Major King, who is a member of the Government Dairy Produce Control Committee, said that no one would want to make a hard bargain with the British Government when the British people were paying for the produce with their bloo<A and with their lives. The high prices of the last war, he added, were the worst thing that ever happened to the industry. Land values were boomed to impossible level, and this was not wanted to happen again. No Driving of Hard Bargain.

Mr. M. P. Dunlop, M.L.C., general president of the Primary Producers' Union ot New South Wales, also made reference to the contract. It was realised, ha said, that Britain and the Empire were now facing grim realities. As members of one great family, the contracting parties had no intention of taking advantage of each Other, or of driving a hard bargain. It was, however, the right and duty of the representatives of the dairy industry to do the best they could for those they represented, and he waa confident that this would be done.

No one could at present Bay with any degree of accuracy what the ternw and cpnditipns of the new <jbn tract were likely to be. Ther«*toisj\">jif may not be the same smooth regular flow of exports as under the present contract. "We may be forced to make, provision for storage on a large scale within the Commonwealth, and we may, in common with other parts of the Empire, have to make sacrifices in other direction*. If sacrifices such as have been broadly hinted at by the Minister for Commerce mean that we are expected to increase production at the same, or even a lower price, or if it becomes necessary to change present method*, we want to be told, and told quickly. Whatever the circumstances may be, those engaged in the industry will carry on. They have no option, and they, like others, realise that their existence as a free people is. at stake."