LOCAL BUTTER MARKET

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 21, 19 October 1944, Page 6

LOCAL BUTTER MARKET

Request For Information PRICE TO THE CONSUMER The course the Government proposed to adopt regarding the price of butter sold on the local market was sought by Mr. Sheat (Opposition, Pa tea) during consideration of the estimates of the Internal Marketing Division in the House yesterday. He said he presumed that as butter was a stabilized commodity the Government would not lu " crease Hie price to the consumer. Mr. Shcat said the additional payments by the British Government represented a substantial increase iu the price for butter, probably between 3d. and 4»d. a pound. 'The question arose whether the producers were Io receive the benelit of that increase in respect ot butter sold on the local market. _ Were the producers Supplying butter for the local market to receive a lower price than that received for butter for export? Was the dairy industry to be called on to supply the local market at the lower price, or was the price to the local consumer to be kept down by subsidy from the War Expenses Account or other accounts from which subsidies were paid ? With wool the vicious principle had been adopted of deducting so much from the exported commodity to pay a subsidy to keep down the price ou the local market. If that course were adopted with batter it would be a heavy burden the dairy industry would have to carry. It the Government were consistent it would apply to butter locally consumed the same principle it applied to other commodities locally consumed other than wool. , . ' The Minister of Marketing, Mr. Roberts. said he would say the local price for butter would remain as at present, its it was incorporated in the price index. The dairy producer had his income based on New Zealand costs. We should retain the New Zealand price level that the farmers’ organizations had subscribed to in the stabilization policy. Mr. Shcat said the Minister had not answered his question whether the price of butter ou the local market was to be stabilized out of the producers’ own money or by way of subsidy. Mr. Roberts replied that it was not his function to supercede the work of the Dairy Industry Committee and the Stabilization Commission which were considering produce prices. Mr. Shcat: You are dodging the issue again. They are not dealing with local prices, but the prices under the agreement with Britain.