PRICE OF MILK.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18600, 30 December 1920, Page 5

PRICE OF MILK.

ONE AND SIXPENCE -WHOLESALE TILL END OF MARCH. The wholesale price of milk was raised tv ad. per gallon by a meeting ol wholesale uulk-sellers held last night, making xlie price Is (id, subject to a. revision at the end of March. Mr J; Parlano presided over the meeting, at which there .was an attendance of ten. The chairman said that many people Wore apt to think that in fixing the price of milk tlie dairymen should take as the ruling factor the price or dairy fat, but they. should go further than that. The inequalities of summer and winter supply had to be considered. Practically twice as many cows were needed in winter as in summer to keep a regular supply. It was a very expensive matter to produce milk m the winter The matter had been very fully gone into before the Board of Trade. The Agricultural Department had told the board that the dairymen were not really charging enough. It had been found by an arbitrator that the cost of wintpr feeding at Hanmer was £35 is (id per cow. He really did not know what would happen to the price of milk if they put the price of labour, etc., on to the cost of milk on that basis. Mills: was being retailed in Wellington at 8d per quart by private dairies, so the Christchurch dairymen had a bit to go before they reached that. Last winter Is Gd was the wholesale price and 2s 4d the retail price. Then the wholesaler brought the price down to Is 3d, and it was thought that the retailers would come down to 2s, but they did not. If the wholesalers were to raise the price that night to Is 6d, tho retailers would still be getting lOd out of it, and a very fair average would be struck. One of the dairymen present said that it big deciding factor was the price of land so close to Christchurch .as to enable good delivery. They had no quarrol with the retailers. He moved that 1 the price be Is 6d henceforward, where bv the retailers would average very fairly without advancing their price. “J don’t think that on this rise the retailers will advance the price to BcV,” said the speaker. The motion was carried,‘with, the proviso that the price be revised pjt the end of March. it was stated, that a man who pirid '£Bs 7s Gd per cow during tho winter would he out of pocket selling at 2s per gallon. 'The chairman said there was no doubt that things- would be very different if those present were using cheaper land. All their machinery had "more than doubled in price. Wages had gone up —2s 6d and' more was being <paid for haymaking, and 149 and 15s a day for weeding mangels.