The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER, 28, 1930. THE DAIRY PRODUCE MARKET.

Hawera Star, Volume L, 28 November 1930, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER, 28, 1930. THE DAIRY PRODUCE MARKET.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’olook in Hawera. Manaia, Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Oeo, Pihama. Opunake, Normanby, Okinawa Eltham, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna. Te Kiri, Mahon, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Eakaramea. Alton, Hurleyvihe P,atea, Whenuakura, Waverley. Mokoiai Whakamara, Ohangai, Mercmere, Fraßer Road, and Ararata.

To-day’is ca ble message, reporting the decisions .of the London dairy produce importers, does not make cheerful reading, for it accentuates the market difficulties with which dairy farmers are to-day. faced; but, having admitted that the prospects are not bright, we are entitled to take some measure of comfort out of the fact that we have the sympathy and support of the importers. The message should finally dispose of the impression, if it still exists, that the merchants of Tooley Street are hard men of business who care nothing for the welfare of the producer at this end of the world. Today’s cable from London provides a complete answer to the suggestion, circulated from Wellington on Wednesday, that there was a prospect of the Home merchants instituting an unofficia] form of “control” in order to bolster up a falling market. The idea that a market collapse can be averted by “firm holders” is not a new one. Indeed, it is actively advocated by some Dominion dairy produce interests as the logical way out for the farmer. But the thought will strike many producers to-day, when they read that cheese has dropped! to as low a.s 60s and butter to lo2s, that the withholding of supplies could not do much good in a crisis like the present. The London merchants, in to-day’s message, a3vise strongly against any attempt at price fixation and it should not be difficult to appreciate their reasons for so advising. New Zealand is a long way from being the “only pebble on the beach” on the London market. World-wide production is high and everywhere money is “tight” and the value of many commodities has reached record low levels. ( The holding of stocks off the market —- granting, for the- moment, that producers could afford to hold —would not result, immediately or for a. long time to come, in a clamour by consumers for our goods. On the contrary the consumers, who are very conscious of the “tightness” of money, would turn elsewhere for their supplies—and their are plenty of sources eager to oblige them. In the absence of any intention to attempt market manipulation, the importers propose to .conduct an advertising campaign urging the public to buy eua* produce, not only for the consumers’ own sakes but for the sakes of the dairy farmers of New Zealand. That is a generous gesture by the importers, for advertising costs a lot of money in England, but it does not provide the New Zealand producer with any excuse for excessive optimism. Low retail prices for but-i.er and cheese have certainly increased consumption of our products and there is good reason to hope that the Dominion -may benefit in the future by lidding some of the new customers it is gaining now. In the meantime the situation calls for a grim determination to hang on and not allow panic to take control. We can no more afford to let up in the struggle to improve quality and keep our goods before the public by advertising than we ever could; in fact, we can afford to do those things less than when prices were good. When the market recovers—and markets DO recover-—, New Zealand should be able to convince the buyers that she did not “let go”, in despair during the slump, but maintained and improved ver prestige in order to be ready te meet customers, old and new, on a basis of equality with all her competitors when the markets resume trading under the old sign, “Business as usual.”