BUTTER ACCUMULATING OVER 1000 TONS STORED.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 6 April 1908, Page 6

BUTTER ACCUMULATING

OVER 1000 TONS STORED.

EQUAL TO THREE MONTHS' SUPPLY.

EXPORTING FINISHED

All danger of a butter, famine is over (says the Dominion). The Dairy Commissioner reports that at the end ef March the quantities of butter w cold store in New Zealand were as follow (we give also the figures for last year):— 190g ig()7 Dunedin, *cwt boxes ... , 866 ,0 Lyttelton, *cwt boxes .. ,328 1,676 Wellington, *cwt boxes 10,249 18,468 Patea, iewt boxes : .."-MU 2,425 New Plymouth... ...... 11,656 18,864 Auckland ... ••• I^3ol 23,221 42,711 64,039 The 42,711 boxes represent over 1000 tons, and are equal to three months', local requirements. The fact that this is 30 per cent, less than the Quantity in store at the same period of last year must not be given too much weight. Last year 138,000 boxes were exported during the winter. Thw year we must say that practically all the butter produced will be put upon the local market, because the difference between London and local prices warrants it. - The New Zealand confers only ate about 80,000 boxes during the six months of the winter, even when the retail price was down to Is Id.- If the price, as seems probable, continues higher than that figure, the quantity eaten may reasonably be less In any case, 40,000 boxes more will be sufficient to make up all the butter wanted during the winter. And it has to be remembered that there are six months left for producing this quantity. Yet in the one month just olosed our factories produced 67,000 boxes. The quantity is calculated as follows:— t Bxported per Conntmc, Ruapehu, and Arawa, over 33,500 boxes Consumed locally, about 12,500 boxes Stored (additional) 21,000 boxes ' 67,000 boxes It is only necessary 'that half of this quantity should be produced during the present month to give New Zealand all the butter she wants to eat and some to spare for export to cheaper markets. In view, of these markets there is no longer any need for the present high price, and an early fall of a few pence may be looked for. The wholesale priceß ruling here and elsewhere are as follows: — Wellington .., ••• I s * d London, net, under ... lid Sydney lOJd Thus the Wellington citizen is paying 50 per cent, more for his butter than the citizen of Sydney. To maintain the present New Zealand price is to invite competition from Australia, where there is plenty of butter, and plenty of grass to keep the supply going. The best Australian butter can be landed in New Zealand at Is Id wholesale, the charges being: — Price in Sydney 10* d Duty at 20 per cent., say 2 d Freight Jd Price to Wellington grocers Is Id The 10$ d paid in Sydney is the price paid by the grocer to the merchant. The price paid by the merchant to the factory will be still less, and it is the factory which may export to New Zealand. . The situation iis unpleasant, and it is obviously to the interest of" the genuine New Zealand producer that the local price should be immediately dropped. The state of the foreign markets does not warrant the present price; the smaUness of the local output does not justify it, because the real producer has not been getting the benefit, and the price is tempting Australians io regard us as a dumping ground for their surplus.