DAIRY PRODUCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 160, 8 June 1939, Page 10

DAIRY PRODUCE

DEFICIT OF £1,827,000. IN SEASON’S ACCOUNT. Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, June 8. The announcement that this season the deficit in the butter and cheese sold under the Government’s marketing scheme was estimated at £1,827,000. and that unless the market conditions changed materially the ultimate loss would he still heavier, was made by Hon. W. Lee Martin at the annual meeting of the South Island Dairy (* Association. He said this deficit was to May 23. In view of the heavy shipments of Australian butter with a consumptive demand below last year’s, it is considered unlikely that any material price advance will take place. Meantime, said the Minister, cheese stocks artlarge and, with the anticipated heavy production of Canadian cheese, the future prospects are not encouraging. A resume of the prices since the marketing scheme was inaugurated nearly three yenVs ago showed that, for the first season, the deficit was £272.109. This sum, with interest, had now L-ccii paid by the Government from the Consolidated Fund. For the 1937-1938 season the surplus would be very close to the estimate of £•555.000 given in the 1938 annual accounts. At the end of the Minister’s address the Minister was asked il the loss under the guaranteed price scheme would he made up by the Government and would a charge bo made on the Consolidated Fund or the Dairy Account. He answered: “Von will have to wait until Air Nash’s return before that question is answered. However, there has been no indication that any future deficit will he charged against the Consolidated Fund.”