BUTTER SATURATION

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 119, 23 May 1933, Page 6

BUTTER SATURATION

Leaders in the New Zealand dairy world have notably differed on the question whether Britain's suggested butter quota was a result of self-depreciation of currency on New Zealand's part. That difference need not be further exploited at this moment, but it should he noted that in the "home farmer campaign" which the "Daily Dispatch" is leading in the Old Country (as explained in yesterday's issue) currency depreciation in the Dominions —at any rate in this Dominion, with its post-Ottawa delibcrateness— is emphasised as a dumping policy. And it would1 seem that if, the 15 per cent, depreciation that followed Ottawa was not a specific cause of the British Government's suggested butter quota, it is certainly and specifically. <an argument in the armoury of those British farmers who seek further protection than distance provides from the competition of New Zealand dairy produce. Commander Stephen KingHall writes: 1 "The Dominions must realise that we cannot live on sentiment while they live on our market.".. -And he is no more candid than is Mr. Coates in his Memorandum, which states: "Butter is near saturation point in the United Kingdom, meaning that neither a further price-fall nor an increase in spending power can continue indefinitely to move into consumption the ever-expanding supplies that we can pour on to the market." Again, "either New Zealand or Australia, within the space of a few years, could by intensive development supply the whole of Great Britain's butter requirements." But Mr. Coates observes "Britain's new-found enthusiasm for promoting her own agriculture, and for introducing regulation of supplies as a means of raising and maintaining prices." All that Ottawa does, he says, is to postpone regulation of butter supplies for a couple of years. In short, the w.riting in the Ottawa Agreement is quite clear, hut the writing on the wall is even clearer. ■ __