BUTTER AND CHEESE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 106, 8 May 1933, Page 10

BUTTER AND CHEESE

BRITISH hSCAL POLICY

CENTURY-OLD PARALLEL

A parallel^ to/the present- competition of Empire and foreign butter and cheese on the English market and the Ottawa decision to discriminate by means of duties,is provided by a Parliamentary report in a , ctopy of the "Times" of March 30, 1817{ which has been received by air Auckland firm from its London office, says the "New Zealand Herald." The chief concern 116 years ago was apparently to protect Irish produce from Dutch competition, whereas today one of the chief\ problems, as far as New Zealand is concerned, is to secure protection from Danish competition. ' Speaking oh a motion, instructing the committee on the butter trade' to consider tho: laws respecting cheese, the Bt. Hon. Mr. Robinson said he had already , stated his objections to prohibitory duties,' but he acquiesced in the views taken of the particular circumstances of Ireland, which demanded a protecting duty. All he had now to observe was as to the amount of the duty he should propose. He meant to increase it to 20s on all foreign butter imported in British ships, and 25s on all imported in foreign vessels. : ' \ . -, - ■ ■ Some might not consider the 25s duty high enough. Some gentlemen connected with the.' interests of Ireland might prefer 30s, while other persons interested in the Dutch trade, would think 25s too high. Of: the latter, some whom he had spoken to thought 10s sufficient. He had endeavoured to strike a just balance between these two opinions. After a motion on those lines had been, carried, the argument was propounded that cheeso should be placed on the same footing as butter. It was decided that a duty of 16s a cwt be placed on foreign cheeses imported in British ships, . and 20s" on those imported in foreign ships. The protection given the Dominions by Britain at Ottawa was to impose a duty of 15s a cwt on foreign butter and 15 per cent, on foreign cheese, the Empire products: being admitted' duty; fr^e, as £reviously_. , ..