SURPLUS BUTTER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 81, 17 March 1934, Page 7

SURPLUS BUTTER

I ALTERNATIVE PROPOSED Purchase by Government SALE IN NEW MARKETS (By Telegraph—Press Association.) HAWERA, March 17. In the course of an interview today, Mr. H. G. Dickie, M.P., made a suggestion as an alternative to the suggested bonus of butterfat that the industry should withhold some 20,000 tons of produce from the London market, the industry to be reimbursed at the current London parity by the Government and the surplus produce Introduced to countries in which it is not at present sold with the object of opening up new markets. “Mr Coates, in his pamphlet ‘A Butter Quota or a Free Market ?’ issued last year, stated that if a 6 per cent, reduction of export increased the London price from 70/- to 84/- per cwt., a smaller volume of produce would realise £230,000 more and the Dominion would have 20,000 tons of produce on hand wfilch had cost it nothing,’’ said Mr Dickie. “The farmers of New Zealand are not prepared to take this gamble, and I suggest that the Government purchase this surplus at 70/- and use it to explore new markets. If Australia would do the same the farmers might obtain an increased price in London, while the Government might not lose very much over marketing th© 20,000 tons elsewhere.

“The total cost to the Government of 20,000 tons at 70/- per cwt. would be £1,400,000, a good share of which would be recovered, while a straight-out subsidy or guaranteed price of 10d to the farmer at current prices would cost the taxpayer £3,000,000.” POSITION DESPERATE Board Could Pay Subsidy (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. March 17. Mr. Grounds states that the DairyBoard is in a position to make an immediate advance to farmers if the Government invested it with the power on the basis of the proposed State subsidy. There was no denying the desperate position of the average dairy farmer, particularly the small man. The present rate of eightpence for butterfat did not represent even a bare subsistence.