PRICE OF MILK.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2421, 29 March 1915, Page 7

PRICE OF MILK.

Sir,—We road in your paper of this morning a letter headed "Tug Price of Milk," and signed C. 51. Strand, Lower llutt. I desiro to inform Mrs. Strand that if half-truths are proverbially misleading is her idea, why does she continue usiug them, for when sho refers to milk boing sold by the producer at Bd. per gallon she does not state whether it is Bd. per gallon on the railway stations at Otaki, Longburn, Upper Hutt, or any other country railway station. Is the public asked to believe that the cost of milk to tho milk-vendor previous to his delivory to the consumer's jug, is only Bd. per gallon? Then, if this is so, who pays the costs of railway freight and cartage from railway stations to dairies, and pasteurisation when, necessary? May be all this is paid by the dairy farmer quito unknown to the writer of tho column referred to. Mrs. Strand has made a .statement to the effect that the Milk Vendors' Association had endeavoured to raise the price of milk to sd. per quart during the present month; to this statement I give an unqualified denial and challenge her to prove it. The position today is not how much the producers should be paid for their milk, but that they should keep to their agreement made to the milk vendors iu October last, under which the said vendors have in many cases entered into contracts guided by that agreement. in referenoo to Mrs. Strand's remarks regarding the bad debts of the Farmers' Association it is a well-known fact that up to the present year that association Had transacted only one bad debt of any material consequence, this being an amount of. between £700 and £800, so that the remaining bad debts are very small.

I also desire to draw the attention of the public to the fact that the Farmers' \ Association supply approximately 3500 gallons of milk daily to Wellington for every gallon of which they levy on their members. id. par gallon, attaining on these figures £3 12s. lid. per day, which amounts to £1112 10s. per annum, to meet working expenses and bad debts. This should realise a far better profit than most retail milk businesses in Wellington. Mrs. Strand has been very careful not to quote the price paid to her for the many thousands of gallons she has supplied to Wellington during the past few years. She has also omitted to .state the amount of bad bedts she has contracted, which as far as I am concerned, after supplying me for several years, is nil, ; ■I oan safely say without fear of contradiction that if Mrs. Strand is the largest supplier of milk in the Lower Hutt Valley, then she has received a greater, price per gallon, than she ventured to say. I wish to ask Mrs. Strand if she only received Bd. per gallon for her milk during April of last year. Her reply must bo "No," and this being so, why does this lady stato the case of somebody else, and leave her own unquoted? May bo she will kindly answer this for the saitsfaction of all concerned.—l am, etc., C. J. DUFFY. i