PROSPECT SLIM

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 50, Issue 3057, 2 April 1941, Page 4

PROSPECT SLIM

RESTRICTION PREDICTED

SHIPPING OF BUTTER

MR D. COURTNEY’S OPINION

The statement by the Minister of Agriculture on Saturday that the prospect of shipping butter to England was slim, created much concern among farmers in this district, many of whom are suppliers to the butter factories at Te Aroha, Paeroa and Ngatea. The factories throughout Thames Valley and Hauraki Plains are cheese producers.

When the latest news about the possibility of restrictions being enforced on the export of butter was mentioned to Mr D. Courtney, chairman of directors of the Te Aroha Dairy Company, by a press representative, he stated that any such restriction would be a very severe matter for the people of this country. The Te Aroha Dairy Company puts through about 3000 tons of butter annually, and had a large number of suppliers throughout the Thames Valley and Hauraki Plains. The New Zealand Dairy Company puts through over 60,000 tons of butter and cheese, and of this, 40,000 tons would represent butter. The factories at Coromandel, Mercury Bay and Tairua were making butter, while the whole of the factories throughout the Bay of Plenty, as well as Morrinsville and Ngatea, were also butter factories.

The suggestion that factories would be required, to change over to cheese was an impossible one, said Mr Courtney, as the necessary machinery could not be imported, much of it being of Swedish and Danish manufacture.

“As cheese occupies two and a-half times the shipping space of butter, I fail to see how the Government is going to get the cheese away either,” continued Mr Courtney. He concluded by saying he considered the matter so serious that he intended to call a meeting of directors immediately. Wellington Announcement The Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. J. G. Barclay, told a reporter that according to advice from Britain, “The outlook for lifting of butter from New Zealand is black.” He added that Britain had suggested that New Zealand farmers might change more to cheese production.

The Prim.e y Minister the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, stressed the importance of New Zealand’s reorganising its primary production to fit in better with external marketing prospects. He said that the British Government had replied to Wellington representations on the meat restrictions to the effect that it fully appreciated the Dominion’s position, and that it is considering new proposals put forward. by Wellington to meet what must be regarded as a common problem.

Mr Fraser added that only one thing was clear in respect to the butter position—that it was highly desirable that the change to cheese production should be made with the utmost speed. He urged farmers wherever possible to effect this “switch.”