ATTEMPT TO STABILISE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 114, 11 November 1930, Page 12

ATTEMPT TO STABILISE

LOCAL PRICE OF BUTTER

New Zealand butter is selling in London to-day'at' under Is per pound wholesale, but the retail price is round about Is id, probably less in pertain densely populated localities. Hitherto the local New Zealand market has been giving a .better return to the producer than exporting on present London-prices. : But there has been some cutting in price in the City of Auckland and district and attempts are now being made to "stabilise" the price, which is generally interpreted to sell dearer in a controlled local market than a commodity is worth for export. At a meeting of Waika'to dairy farmers held at Matamata on Friday the following motion was carried unanimously: "That this ■ meeting views with dismay the chaotiu state of affairs in regard to the sale of butter on the local market, and considers it imperative that a. meeting of fanners should be held with a view to formulating a scheme for the readjustment of the market prices." Mr. K. W. Stevens, bank manager, said he was sure the townspeople would pay up to Is 6d or Is 8d per lb for their butter if the farmers could be assured of a.payable return for the whole of their output. Mr. Ivan Black said the local price was fixed by a board of three. Mr. W. H. Allen, director .of New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company, said other companies started undercutting and his company had to follow suit. An amendment to leave the matter to factory directors was lost.