THE GREY RIVER ARGUS TUESDAY, June 30, 1925. A MATTER FOR THE BOARD OF TRADE.

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1925, Page 4

THE GREY RIVER ARGUS TUESDAY, June 30, 1925. A MATTER FOR THE BOARD OF TRADE.

j it v,i!l have claimed the attention lat least of housewives that during the I past couple of weeks, the price of but ! 1 ' i' has twice been raised, each time •by one penny per pound. It is quite ■ obvious this move is a concerted one 1 "'i Hi'- part of the dairy factory con:corns throughout the country. A eorI respondent remarks that, so far as the majority of the struggling dairy farmers are concerned, no benefit will be reaped from the increase in the price ol the butter that is now in store, and ii is indeed a diflicult matter to see any genuine justification whatever for the action taken. It is not as if this increase in the winter time were some now departure, because it has been imposed upon th,- consumer time and again in past years. fhe increase is charged just in mid-winter, when times Lore ha tales! for the workers; and when the spring comes, the price drops automatically. The Government seems oblivious of the manoeuvre, allowing

. the vendors to exploit the public in [ ’lie- case of this, very essential commodity just as freely as if it were but a luxury. Children in many homes may be stinted of a very necessary food clement in consequence, t>> their lasfTng detriment; while the price-fixers rake in the shekels with impunity. Now, we arp well aware Iwlmt excuse it is the butler eumliine I offci's for its action. Ihe increase, it is alleged, is simply one in sympathy , with an improvement in the price of ,ii '.utter on the London market. It is :i strance tiling, however, that when .the price of butter falls in London, ' I there is in this country, where the j article is produced, no corresponding . I reduction in price conceded. For in'slance, a short, time ago, the butter market in London fell very low. We limit occasion then to point out that (New Zealand dairy farmers were allowing their returns to decline through a neglect to keep up uniformity of quality in Hie article exported. In New Zealand itself, however, there is nothing that has occurred since last month to render butter a more valuable or a scarcer commodity. 'file price was surely high enough already! 'The consumer seems to be left entirely at the mercy of the exploiter. If the Board of Trade, however, is alive to its duty, it will look carefully into this matter immediately. The least it can do is to attempt i<> satisfy the public that ■ the rise is justified. Perhaps it foresees the difficulty of such an enterprise. There may bo some excuse for I a rise in milk prices in winter al- ) though even dairymen seem to hold i different views locally as to the extent I of the winter increase that is justified —but. butter is a commodity made alImost wholly from milk produced in the I summer time. The consumers in the I Old Country are loud in their complaints against exploitation in this connection, and when the consumers in the country of production are in the same predicament, they can sympathise the more readily with those overseas. An inquiry into this matter is certainly to be desired without delay.