GROCERS' ASSOCIATION'S QUOTATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12956, 28 August 1905, Page 3

GROCERS' ASSOCIATION'S QUOTATIONS.

Sir, kindly allow me audience for a word or two on the above subject, as the proper presentation of the facts connected therewith vitally concerns the whole of the dairy farmers of the colony. In the first- place, I should like for obvious reasons to have the searchlight thrown on the personnel of the Grocers Association, so as to enable one to form something approaching an accurateidea of their qualifications as butter experts, for instance. I must ask to be excused' if I appear 00 explicit when I ask— (1) By what authority they arrogate to themselves the right to determine the prices that shall be paid to farmers for their pioduoe? and (2) if their qualifications as experts enable them to differentiate, say, between the respective qualities of factory-made butter and butter made from one herd on a farm with an up-to-date plant? Were they conversant with this matter I am confident that the respective press quotations, vide your issue of the 21st inst., for separator butter 8d to 9d per lb and factory butter Is Id per lb, would bo reversed. I base this statement on an experience extending over 55 years, and challenge contradiction from anyone competent to dispute it. The Grocers' Association has no more moral right to fix the prices for farmers' produce I than the farmers have to fix the prices of any commodity the grocers have for sale. Surely the justice of this contention is apparent. This inequitable practice has been in existence for over 30 years, and it is high time that the producers, in their-own best interests, should rise up and put an end to it, or, failing that, demand that the several of the members of the Grooms' Association Committee should be appended to their quotations. Then farmers would know those with whom they had to deal, and would act accordingly. My own opinion is, give them a wide berth until at any rate they alter their present tactics. Now, sir, 1" am prepared to prove that their butter quotations are on wrong lines. I refer specially to the respective qualities and prices quoted for factory and private separator butter. As I have had 35 year's of practical i experience in the dairying industry, includ- | ing seven years as factory manager and four j years as creameries inspector, I hold, there- j fore, that in point of quality the private separator gives a far higher result than the factory product. At any rate, f am prepared bo forfeit the sum of £50 if 1 fail to prove the truth of mv contention. If the Giooers' Association will produce a box of bona-fide factory butter from the best factory in the North Island and deposit the sum of £50 therewith, 1 will produce a box of butter from a private farm separator for comparison. At the end of, say, three mouths the butter which is best in point of flavour shall take the two cheques.. Thomas Wii.so.v. Hillsborough, August 26.