Butterfat Payment System Under Fire

Northern Advocate, 22 July 1939, Page 8

Butterfat Payment System Under Fire

“There was a certain amount of money in the pool from butter proceeds, and no matter how we had juggled, the various rates of payment would have been the same,” said the secretary of the Maungatapere Co-op. Dairy Company, Ltd., Mr J. L. S. Morrell, at the annual meeting of the shareholders on Thursday. He was replying to comments made by Mr F. Platt, who pointed out, that while butterfat supplied during July of the past season had been paid for at the rate of 1/Of per lb., the payout in August had been lid more. The estimated average payment over all grades as shown by the balancesheet was 14.885 d.

Mr Platt considered that owing to the difference between the rates of payment' for supplies early in the season and then for the later period, early suppliers have contributed a greater amount to the final distribution. Other suppliers also criticised the method of payment. Small Difference. Based on the figures of representative suppliers, several systems of payment had been considered by the directors, said Mr Morrell, and on the final decision the difference which would have been made in the proceeds of any one supplier would have amounted to no more than a few shillings. “If we had paid mere to the early suppliers in Juno and July, we would have lessened the payments during the flush period,” said the chairman, Mr L. Reynolds.

Mr Plait maintained that a flat rate over the whole of the season would have proved more equitable, but Mr Horrell pointed out that the guaranteed price for the 1938-39 season did not operate until the end of August.

Oystci’s.—lncreased business in the retail supply of rock oysters in paper bags is a feature of the operations at the Auckland State Depot. The condition of oysters from the Bay of Islands and Kaipara is better this season than last, but oysters from the Hauraki Gulf are smaller. It is anticipated that over 500 more sacks of oysters will be marketed this year than last year.