BUTTER AND CHEESE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 1561, 17 June 1920, Page 3

BUTTER AND CHEESE.

COOPERATIVE MARKETING. DANN EVIK KE FACTORIES. Shareholders of the Matamau, Piri Pin and Tatamaroa cheese factories held a meeting at Matamau Hall on Wednesday afternoon to consider the proposed co-operative marketing' of dairy produce. There was an attendance of about 66, and Mr S. T. Paviour-Smith, of Dannevirke, secretary of the various companies, was voted to the chair. Mr Smith outlined the scheme, as put before the dairymen at meetings held elsewhere, at which the Press had been excluded. He detailed how a delegation from Home had been touring the Dominion in regard to the matter and. how the proposal originally emanated, from the National Dairy Association, who communicated with Mr K. Ellison, London representative of the N.D.A., and now in turn the matter had come to be considered by the Co-operative Wholesale Society at Home. The scheme is to form a company or central board in England. It will have two shareholders, the Cooperative Wholesale Society, Ltd., being one shareholder, and a New Zealand company the other. The London Company will act as the selling medium for the New Zealand produce and will have the power to fix the j selling prices for butter and cheese, and generally regulate and control the market at Home. It is proposed that the New Zealand Company should be under the direction of an executive elected from the factories who are members of the company, and that the executive shall appoint London directors to represent the N.D.A.. on the London Board. In fixing the selling price for New Zealand produce, it is agreed that the committee appointed for the purpose by the Control Board in London shall have a majoritv of New Zealand representatives thareon. The C.W.S. was to have first refusal when the price was fixed. This marketing- proposal was equivalent to having our own selling floor in London, but they would have the advantage of having placedv-if their disposal the retail connection of the C.W.S.. which represented a consuming population of 20 million of people. They were prepared to take all our butter and half our cheese. Mr Smith explained that the meeting that day was not to commit the factories, but simply to instruct the delegate from each factory to the conference in Palmerston North how to act. They could vote for or against the scheme. He pointed out that prior to the war they either sold their outputs or sent it Home on open consignment. Only that day two brokers had been after their produce, and had lengthy interviews with him. He gave some particulars of the extensive operations of the C.W.S., but made it quite clear that he did not want them to think he was carried away by the scheme, but was simply placing it before them as far as he was conversant with the facts. It was desirable they should look at the question in all its aspects. Mr Smith pointed out how our produce at Home was being labelled and sold as other than New Zealand, and he gave instances of cases which had been reported to him by visitors to the Old Laud.

Mr Hussey (chairman of the Piri Piri Co.) said it was proposed that the C.W.S. shall advance up to 50 per cent. —It was pointed out that the factories in New Zealand wotfid do nothing- unless the finance is assured. —ln regard to the financing the chairman explained the proposal for raising the capital, it being worked out on a basis of Sd per share on butterfat. —In reply to Mr Pallant, the chairman stated that the only thing about the C.W.S. was that when the price is fixed they have the first refusal. Mr Pallant held that the C.W.S. should not be given a monopoly, or the first refusal. He suggested that we should have our own New Zealand representatives at Home to deal with our produce. In reply to various questions, Mr Smith spoke highly of the integrity and honour of the personnel of the C.W.S. delegation to New Zealand. He pointed out that among the advantages claimed for the enterprise was that our butter and cheese would be introduced to twenty millions of consumers, that it would be sold as New Zealand produce, and a greater demand would be created for it. No difficulty was expected in regard to the shipping of our produce. Mr Pallant held that every firm and , branch should have the privilege of buying New Zealand produce, and not merely one company. Mr Hussey explained how it was intended to fix the price at regular periods. Some of the speakers criticised the action of the N.D.A. in excluding the Press from the meetings which had been held in other parts, and held that this action had provoked some opposition to the scheme. The chairman explained that he personally had been in favour of the Press being admitted to the meetings. Eventually Messrs Hussey, Hughes and Jeffreys, chairmen respectively of the Piri Piri, Matamau, and Tataramoa factories, in turn took the chair and sought the feeling of their respective shareholders present, and in each instance a motion was passed that the delegate to the N.D.A. annual meeting in Palmerston North be given full power to act as he thinks fit. in the best interests of his company. In the case of the Piri Piri factory, it was agreed that the chairman should confer with the directors.