DAIRY PRODUCE MARKETING

Northern Advocate, 7 February 1936, Page 6

DAIRY PRODUCE MARKETING

TO BE HANDLED BY GOVERNMENT?

CABINET AND BOARD STILL MEETING

QUESTION NOT YET FINALISED

[Per Press Association. — CopyriqlU.l WELLINGTON. This Day. ANOTHER CONFERENCE EETWEEN MINISTERS OF THE CROWN AND MEMBERS OF THE NEW ZEALAND DAIRY BOARD WAS HELD AT PARLIAMENT HOUSE YESTERDAY TO DISCUSS STILL FURTHER THE PROPOSALS REGARDING LOCAL AND OVERSEAS MARKETING OF DAIRY PRODUCE. AND THE GOVERNMENT’S POLICY IN RESPECT OF GUARANTEED PRICES. After the conference the Prime Minister, the Hen. M. J. Savage, said; “We have not yet reached finality. Details Of the Government’s proposals are being shaped. At the present time a special 'committee is investigating the question and the application of guaranteed prices. As the matter will Lave to be discussed again at another meeting of the Dairy Board, a detailed statement cannot be issued just now. There is no hitch in the negotiations. The whole matter is a question of details.”

Government To Handle Marketing? “ It was gathered from other sources, that the Government’s proposals to the Dairy Board include, or at least involve, the determination by the Government to take over the marketing of dairy produce, it being contended, as a matter of logic, that if prices are to be guaranteed by the State, control of marketing must be in the Government’s hands. Ministerial confirmation of this policy was not ascertainable in political circles yesterday. As re-

gard prices, it is understood that, according to the returns compiled by experts for the Dairy Board, the average rate for butter and

cheese during the past ten years works out at a fraction over 1/1 per lb. for butterfat used in the 'manufacture of butter, and a little more in respect of that for cheesemaking. In the course of the general election campaign, some Labour candidates suggested the average retuinT over, the past ten years as a basis for the fixing of the guaranteed price, and it is understood that, in present official discussions, ,1/2 and 1/3 per lb. for butterfat have been mentioned, but nothing has been decided.