BUTTER PRICE-LEVEL

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 148, 20 March 1934, Page 8

BUTTER PRICE-LEVEL

New Stabilisation Scheme for Australia INTER-STATE REGULATION According to cable messages published yesterday action in the direction of stabilising the price-level of the domestic butter market in Australia has been taken by the formation of an organisation known as the Commonwealth Dairy Produce Equalisation Company, Limited, with the object of regulating the industry within the Commonwealth. The Paterson plan having virtually collapsed owing to lack of statutory recognition, the new scheme has been developed as a plan offering no loopholes for price-cutting on the Australian market. Commenting on the new scheme in Australia, Mr. T. C. Brash, secretary of tlie Dairy Produce Control Board, stated yesterday that cabled advice received last week from Australia was not very clear, but it was his opinion that the scheme was really to stabilise prices on the local Australian market. The organisation mentioned in the cable was designed to take the place of the well-known Paterson plan. “The weakness of the Paterson plan,” said Mr. Brash, “was that it had no statutory power behind it and did not provide for inter-State co-ordination, in. a way that gave a Commonwealth organisation. The position now apparently is that the necessary legislation has been passed to control the whole of the local market in all States. With this object in view,” said Mr. Brash, “a certain company formation was necessary to carry the equalisation proposals into operation.” Points relating to the new scheme are set out in the “Australian Dairy Review” for March, copies of which came to hand yesterday. The journal points out that the Paterson plan would have been successful in stabilising prices had it received statutory recognition by the Commonwealth Government, thereby enabling action against dai-y manufacturers who were disloyal to the plan. But the Commonwealth Government very definitely refused such recognition.

An alternative to the Paterson plan was brought down by representatives of the dairying industry on the lines of those successfully operating in the dried fruits industry. Legislation sanctioning an adaptation of this scheme to the requirements of the dairying industry has now passed the Governments of the principal dairying States and of the Commonwealth. Statutory power has now been given for the regulation of inter-State trade in butter and cheese. Prices are to be maintained at a determined figure in any given State by provision of a quota system as between the various States. The inter-State movement of surplus butter and cheese is to be regulated so that prices shall not be subject to marked fluctuations. Any surplus above State requirements is for export.