SALE OF BUTTER TO PUBLIC

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27735, 12 August 1955, Page 5

SALE OF BUTTER TO PUBLIC

“RANCID AND QUITE UNPALATABLE” FEDERATION OF LABOUR SUPPORTS COMPLAINTS (New Zealand. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 11. i Numerous complaints had been re- : ceived by him about rancid butter sold to the public, said the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr F. P. Walsh) last night. “In the Wairarapa district, in particular, for the last two months or more, the butter that has been retailed has been rancid and quite unpalatable,” said Mr Walsh. “The retailers, however, knowing the bad quality of the product they are forced to sell by the Dairy Products Marketing Commission, safeguard themselves by agreeing that their customers can return the butter if it is found rancid.” Mr Walsh said that this was another instance of monopoly control by producers that had been set up by a “free enterprise” Government, giving them power to compel consumers to accept unpalatable food or go without. Public opinion had forced the Government to amend the Apple and Pear Marketing Regulations, thus enabling the consumer to receive fresh ftuit at a reasonable price. Public opinion coiild likewise, if the people were determined to do so, force the Minister of Marketing (Mr K. J. Holyoake) to take the necessary steps to see that consumers received fresh, wholesome butter. “If the butter that local consumers have been forced to buy is a fair sample of butter we are exporting, then it is little wonder that the bottom has fallen out of the overseas market for this produce,” Mr Walsh added. “It is difficult to understand how the Dairy Board, whfch extracts heavy contributions from the dairy farmers, can stand idly by and watchSthis state of affairs 1 ‘without evena suspicion of protest.”