FACTORY PAY-OUTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 August 1924, Page 6

FACTORY PAY-OUTS.

(To the Editor.) . The report of the annual meeting of the Lowgartlf Co-op Dairy Co., Ltd., m your issue of the' 16th ‘ilist., shows that that factory paid out over & per lb butter-fat for the 1922-23 inoo°o’ and wijl do as well for the 1923-24 season—and this in spite of having a large proportion of cheese ‘second grade.” They made cheese ■and consigned. The Hawera Company paid for the 1922-23 season Is 7id per Ib for butter-fat, and for the 1923-24 season Is 7d- —nearly 5d per lb less than Loivgarth The Hawera Company paid out on 2,101,9821 b of fat, and 5d per lb on ibis works out at £43,791 lost to the suppliers through not mailing cheese and consigning!. The farmers would have spent most of this od among the Hawera tradesmen,.- or if they reduced their mortgages would have had the interest so saved to spend year after year. For many years ive stuck to making cheese and consigning, and were always in the first flight as to pay-out; now we dabble aboirt jrom cheese to butter, and from consigning to selling, and have lost (ir your report and my calculations are correct) fully £40,000 for this year alone. If ] am not right. I hope' you or some of your correspondents will put me so.—l am, etc., AN OLD SUPPLIER, In view of the important questions invo ved in our correspondent’s letter we brought the points raised to the notice ol three people close!v connected with tlie dairying industry,' and the following is a short record of their comments :

In the first place, from information to hand, it was stated in reply to our inquiries that Lowgarth's pay-out tin's year will not be nearly as good as it iaas last year. As yet it is impossible to say what their actual pav-out will be. but it is expected to lie in the vicinity ol Is !)d. Secondly, the payouts ol dairy companies "cannot lie measured by the pav-outs per lb butter-fat. as 10091 b of butter-fat at Is bid brings the same amount of money as 9731 bat l.s 7d. There are so many factors that must be taken into consideration. For example, the following is a comparison of last year’s statistical figures of three neighbouring cheese companies, reckoning the price of cheese in each case ac the same value, namelv. Is per lbinXo - 0n a 3 tesfc the value of tlb of butter-fat is 33.08 d. and the value of the total suoplv of -400 0001 b of milk is .£2084. in^ U 'p^r^ n a -htest the value of lib of butter-fat is 32.39 d. and the value of the total supplv of 400 0001 b of milk is £2OOB 3s. No. 3—On a 3.97 test the value of lib of butter-fat is 31.68 d. and the value of 400.0001 b of milk £2096 3s. It will be seen, therefore, that while ■No. 3 pays out less per lb butter-fat the suppliers actually receive £l2 3s more than No. 1, and £BB more than No. 2. These figures are vouched for bv competent company secretaries.. 1' nrther information is forthcoming from balance sheets of other companies which this year made cheese and consigned. Ararata expects to make a final pav-out of Is 6d per lh butterfat. Mere Mere Is old. Normnnbv l.s 64d, Mnngatoki Is 5.6 d. Fiverdale Is 6d. and Awatuna Is old.

The correspondent quotes Hawera Company’s pay-out for 1922-23 at Is 74d. It was rather better than that, being Is 7\77d.