BUTTER PROBLEM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 167, 12 July 1918, Page 6

BUTTER PROBLEM.

AUSTftAOAiN VIEW. At a meeting of the central executive of the Primary Producers' Union, New South Wales, it was decided to ask the Commonwealth Butter Committee to contract with the British Government for the purchase of the surplus butter in Australia for the period of the war. and for two years after, subject to" a yearly revision of the price. The "excessive nature" of the nrofits made bv the middleman was strikingly illustrated bv Mr. J. N. Williams, secretary of the "Victorian Grocers' Association, a few days ago, when fcalline; attention to profits made by butter merchants. He snid that one of i the "Victorian butter company's balance-sheets just issued showed a net profit on la.-=t -year's working of 32.4 per cent., and in the previous year the same company made 4l per cent, profit. Judged h v grocer*' standards these profits were fabulous, b«t evidently butter merchant* held different ideas.