MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD. Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1906. MARKETING PRODUCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8155, 3 April 1906, Page 4

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD. Circulation, 3,200 Copies Daily. TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1906. MARKETING PRODUCE.

j Anything which indicates that New Zealand is igetting more self-reliant and. more dependent on its own resources will be welcomed by alt colonials who have their country's welfare at heart. In one respect at least a disposition is shown to break with the habit of going outside th# colony to do what can just as profitably be done within its confines. This is in connection with the marketing of wool. Though most of our produce goes to London, there is a growing tendency to dispose of wool locally, and a contemporary points out that th& mere fact of the growth is an indication that it is profitable to soli in the colonial markets. Figures have been prepared which show that in the 1904-5 season 150,080 bales were sold in the colony, /tvhile in 1905-6 169,963 lales were disposed of, an increase of nearly 13 per cent, the increase in the number of bales offered being 8 per cent. A suggestion has been made that the wool sales for the season be concentrated in fewer selling 3entres, as this would presumably ittract more foreign buyers, and the aiore buyers there are the greater the chances of selling. It amy bo renarked that the wool growers oE the N"orth Island have not fully grasj>ed -he advantages of selling locally, for mt of the total offerings of 188,400 « >ales the North Island contributed >8,553 bale*?, though it possesses the arger flocks. The contemporary above ei'erred to urges that the system of ] eiling more in tho local market bo - xtended to the dairy industry, stating i bat "tlm whole system of marketing ' utter as it now obtains in this 1 olony, is deplorably bad. The uyera hare to scour the coun■y, racing from factory to factory, taking bids here, dodging rivals there, J tdeavouriug to obtain an unfair advan- " gtf with this factory, or being cruelly a

deceived with another. These are not I reasonable business conditions, , an<i ' should not be tolerated. "VTe cannot understand butter cannot bo *oid in the open market like wool*' Why f for instance, should there not bo fortnightly Miles at, say, 2Tew Plymouth, ]?a£ea, and Wellington ? Ssniple&of th© butter io be sold with graders'"certificates and store warrants or shipping bills would be all that would be rtv quired, and in open market with the buyers bidding one against the other, we should have something liVe sensible * business method*. However, srliile prices are high, and the buyers fire obliged to go begging for favours, there will be no change, but when there is a slump there will be a vigorous outcry from the producers) for the inauguration of new conditions ; the trade will then be placed on a business basis,- fair alike to buyers and sellers." The proposal is a reasonable one which deserves consideration. Butter exchanges have previously been advocated in Palmerston North and other Korth Island' towns, but so far as we are aware no practical results ever came of the matter. The policy o£ colonial commercial men ought to be to concentrate their operations as much as possible in the Colony, and for this reason we hope these proposals will not be lost sight of.