THE PATERSON PLAN

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 128, 3 June 1927, Page 6

THE PATERSON PLAN

(To tha Editor.)

Sir, —I noticed a modest little paragraph, in your columns to-day, stating that the Meat Producers' Board was considering applying the Paterson plan to the export hcet trade. I wonder whether the public realises the significance of this move? The Paterson plan as applied to exportable surplus produce, in plain Engiish, means obtaining from the local consumer oi more than tne export price of a given commodity is worth. It derives the name from Mr. Paterson, M.H.R., of Victoria who devised it. Under that scheme Australian butter consumers have been forced to pay for Australian butter 3d to 4d per pound more than British consumers o£ tho same Australian butter, and the dairy farmer has benefited to the extent of £3,----000,000 more for his produce than he would have received had the local price of Australian butter been the export price its true economic value. The Patersori plan an Australia was sanctioned by the Government. The result has been heavy imports of butter from New Zealand to combat the move, and New Zealand butter is selling in Australia, freight and duty aud charges paid, at Id per pound under Australian. The electors of the Dominion will surely require the Government to carefully watch this matter, because if it operates with respect to beef, why not to butter, cheese, eggs, all meats, fruit, honey; in fact, everything we produce, consume, and export? However, it may be argued that the people of the Dominion are not compelled to eat beef, and I do not think they will do so if adoption of the Paterson' plan compels them to pay more than it is worth to export, more than ii; will realise, after fp zing, freight, insurance, and other charges are paid on it, in the Old Country. That, however, is the case of Australian butter, sold at pence per lb less in England than it is sold in Australia. Ihe Paterson scheme may be. all right for the farmers strongly protected by tariffs, but it is very bad for consumers when allied to foodstuffs of any description.— I am, etc., q ' BRISKET. IA copy of the above letter was submitted to the Meat Board, which declined to make any comment.] FRUIT* SALES IN GERMANY Sir,—Some little time ago: Colonel C. Gray, chairman of the New Zealand Fruit Producers' Board, was reported in New Zealand newspapers as having advised grower* "never to ship direct to Hamburg—their marketing methods were a vicious business. Whatever was done with Hamburg was best done through London." I now wish to lay the following information before the New Zealand fruit-growers and shippers:—:. ■ /.- There is a very large market for apples' from overseas' in Germany, and if New Zealand shippers went the right way about it they might secure a good share of the business, but their chances will remain negligible so loug as they follow the advice of Colonel Gray and attempt'to do the business through London , instead of shipping direct to Hamburg. As to the marketing methods in Hamburg, 1 wonder where Colonel Gray gathered his information which led him to. describe them as "a vicious business.' Has Colonel Gray been in' Hamburg, and if he was there, what did he see? lam •in .a position to state that some of the most important; Australian shippers of ; fruit have at various ti#:es since, 1903 personally investigated the conditions of marketing fruit from overseas at Hamburg and found nothing but praise for them. Among those persons was '• the late Sir Henry Jones (of the firm of Henry Jones and Co., Hobart), who is recognised as having been one of the most prominent and best informed men in the apple trade. The last of a number of visits paid by the late Sir Henry Jones to Hamburg was in 1922 in company with his well-known London manager, Mr. F. W. Moore, when both gentlemen declared the Hamburg accommodation and methods for dealing with fruit from overseas to be superior to anything they had seen, adding that they wished that conditions in Great Britain would be organised ou. those prevailing.at •Hamburg. ". : ; ;.-> , ; -■».- -, How entirely satisfactory the Hamburg methods must be, may be gathered from the fact that Australia, since about 1900, sent there ever increasing quantities of apples, all by direct steamers. Shipments had reached about 400,000 cases per annum by 1913-14: The business was taken up again by Australia as soon as conditions in Germany allow of it after the. war, and iv 1925 the export amounted already to 103,000 cases, and rose to 248,000 cases of apples and 4000 cases of peara i» 1926. A part of the last-mentioned supplies for Germany was, unfortunately for. the business, not sent direct to Hamburg because of lack of suitable steamer* since the war, but this handicap will soon be overcome. What Australia does. New Zealand con do if opportunities are provided for direct deliveries in cool storage during the months of march to June. 'I repeat that there is a good market open for New Zealand apples in Hamburg, not only for distribution in Germany, but also for States bordering on Germany which are accustomed to buy supplies from overseas at the splendidly organised Hamburg fruit auctions. 1 am pleased to show the New Zealand fruit-growers the way to a new and very promising outlet for their, produce, and I hopei that good, results may follow.—l am, etc., ■■-.-■....- ---' W. PENSELER, German Consul. [The letter was referred to Mr. Napier, secretary of the Fruit Board, who said he could not speak for Colonel Gray, who was absent from New Zealand; but nothing of the king attributed to Colonel Gray of which the Consul complains, is to be found in references made in the official report of the Fruit Producers' Board on "Continental Markets."] '.