NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1017, 9 November 1917, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

TRANSPORT A DIFFICULT MATTER. /Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 8. The High Commissioner’s suggestion, reported in a cablegram from London, that (he New Zealand producers are being unfairly treated in comparison with the Irish farmers, as far as butter is concerned, does not commend itself to the Ministers who have had the handling of the Imperial purchase business hero. Irish butter commands the market price in England because it can reach the market easily and quickly. New Zealand butter is in an entirely different, position. The buyers, that is, the Imperial authorities, have to provide the transport, and they arc doing that with increasing difficulty. There is ground for believing that, if the transactions were placed on a purely business basis, as would be the case if New Zealand were a neutral country, Britain would not take our butter or our lamb at the present time, and would not provide ships for moving either article. The Imperial authorities want beef, mutton, and cheese, the beef, coming an easy first. It has fallen to the Jot of Mr Massey to appeal again and again for additional snips, and his appeals necessarily have raised the issues of kinship and sentiment. It is perfectly safe to say that if the New Zealand producers refused to sell their butter for leas than the Irish farmers are getting, Britain woidd not buy this season. There are markets to he found elsewhere, but apparently it would be almost impossible to get access to them.