MILK SUPPLY IN CITY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22465, 28 July 1938, Page 5

MILK SUPPLY IN CITY

♦ POSSIBLE ACTION BY PRODUCERS DEMAND FOR HIGHER PRICES CONTRACTS SOUGHT WITH VENDORS “That this meeting of producers of milk for the city supply resolves that the directors of the Christchurch Dairymen’s Society be asked to enter jqto contract at once on our behalf for milk supply at the following prices based on the winter quota; One shilling a gallon for winter milk; lOd a gallon for summer milk; vendors to take the whole of the quota till March 31, when the prices will be reviewed and failing, contracts being entered into, the milk supply to be withheld.” This was the decision of a meeting of milk producers last evening, when dissatisfaction was expressed at what was stated to be the unpayable ruling price of lOd a gallon for milk supplied by producers. Mr C. W. Humm, of Wainui, presided. The chairman said that he had ascertained from a herd test that a cow produced in the winter only twpihirds of what it produced m the summer. “Year by year we are takin o wl.ut is offered to us,” ho said. Produccrs have had no say, and wc pave come to a stage when we should ha\c Mr Humm quoted figures which showed that it was more profitable to milk in summer for butter : fat production than to milk in winter for the present price ruling for the town supply. Mr H; V. Wareing said that producers in Tcmuka received Is a gallon from the milk-in-schools Beheme, and paid 25s an acre for rent while producers in the Christchurch district received only lOd and paid £4 an acre for rent. “The position is that we are mugs and are permitting it,” said Mr F. A. H. Penfold. . Another speaker sard that the price the Government was prepared to pay for school milk seemed to govern the price all other producers could get for their product. This seemed to him to be very unfair. Unless something was done in a few weeks, it was possible that the price producers would receive would fall to 8d in a few months. The school holidays would have a further effect on* the position. “A Milk Strike?” “I cannot see how milk can be produced for 7d or 8d a gallon,” he said. “The solution suggested at the meeting last week was. that a definite contract should be completed between the producer and the vendor for a stipulated price, or that producers should separate their milk and send it to the factories. If the vendor is not prepared to pay a reasonable price, why sell your produce at a price which you know will not pay you to carry on? It was also suggested at the meeting last week that producers might threaten to inaugurate a milk strike. You would only need to do that to stir up a ‘hive of bees’ which would soon come down to find out what was wrong.” Mr P. McDrury suggested that Messrs H. S. S. Kyle, C. Morgan Williams, and T. H. McCombs, members of Parliament, be approached with a request to place the matter before the Government. It was stated that Mr Kyle and Mr Morgan Williams had been approached and had stated that they would raise the matter in Parliament. "Unless producers get contracts they will never get anywhere,” commented a speaker. He considered that members of the Dairymen’s Society should instruct the directors to draw up conMr C. R. Ward moved that they ask the society to circularise all producers asking whether they would be prepared to take direct action unless the vendors were prepared to complete contracts on the basis of a given price. “We should have a Tay-down-tools’ strike; it’s our only chance of getting anywhere,” said Mr Wareing. “I think it should be left with the society to call a strike if it thought fit.” Mr R. Nixon then moved an amendment to the motion of Mr Ward, and it was seconded by Mr S. Harris, and carried unanimously by the meeting.