LONDON BUTTER STOCKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17985, 10 January 1922, Page 6

LONDON BUTTER STOCKS.

PROPOSAL TO REPURCHASE.

GOVERNMENTS CONFERRING 1 .. ' " , ■ ___; ;„ ." , <

AUSTRALIA'S DECISION AWAITED. [BY. TEUflfcira.-SBEStt" ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Monday. Asked if he had anything further to say in regard to the present position of the butter market, and what could be done to. iiriprove matters, the Prime Minister stated he could not say anything more until he heard from Australia what action the Commonwealth Government proposed to take in reference to the purchase of the stock of Australian'buttw now held by the Imperial Government. The suggestion was made by the British Government some time ago that in order to ease the position the Australian and New Zealand Governments should purchase at a price stated to them the stocks of Australian and New Zealand butter respectively held i» Britain. Before deciding what action to take tfte New Zealand Government* desired to know what AustxaKa intended to do.

ELEVENPENCE A POUND.

RUMOUR NOT CONFIRMED. IBT mSGBAPH.—OWN COBBBSPONDENT.] HAMILTON, Monday. The rumour current that the New Headland dairy producers have offered to bu;/ up all old Imperial stocks of butter at lid per ]b. is not confirmed by the head office of the. New Zealand Dairy Company at Hamilton. According to the secretary of the company, Mr- T. L. Hamas, no agreement as to prices has yet been reached, and &q negotiations by the producers of the respective countries for the purchase of the New Zealand and Australian stocks held by the Imperial GovernmenUro still in progress. If the proposals at present under consideration are carried ont it is important to know that New Zealand producers will be responsible only for the New Zealand portion of the Imperial stocks. The whole scheme depends upon complete co-operation between Australia and New Zealand. A cablegram received by the company from London to-day givna the price at which &6 Imperial Government is releasing New Zealand butter at 115s perewt., which is a fraction over one shilling a pound. The cablegram indicates a firmer tone eeneraUy. AUSTRALIAN VIEWS.

PRIME MINISTER'S ATTITUDE, Representatives oi a conference of Australian butter producers, held in Melbourne on January 4, in reference to the disposal of the Imperial Government's stocks of butter, waited on the Prime Minister, Mr. W. M. Hughes, and urged that i the Ministry should give financial assistance to enable the producers to purchase the stocks of bntter in London from the Imperial Government. It was stated that' if "the threat of the Imperial Government' to unload the whole of the accumulated stocks on the market was carried out, there would be chaos in the industry in, Australia, and some of the Australian but-1 ter factory companies would be forced into liquidation. What the producers desired to i do was to purchase the whole of the accu-1 mulated stocks in London at 84s per cwt. I and sell the butter at their discretion; but it was found impossible for the industry to j finance Che proposal It was admitted by the deputation, in answer to Mr. Hughes, that the total amount of surplus butter in London was only 20,000 tons; while the weekly con- \ sumption of Britain was from 3000 to 5000 tons. Mr. Hughes said he quite appreciated the difficulty of the position, and the Ministry wantod to help, but ho had not been convinced that the Ministry would be doing the proper thing. He understood that the dsarymen wanted Is 6d per lb. in order that butter could be produced profitably. " Mr. H. W. Osborne (leader of the deputation) : That is so. Mr. Hughes: You will riot get it by any such device as this. I must haye time to consider this very carefully. This is one of those excursions of a Government into private enterprise that does not commend itself to me, luid I don't know that it will commend iteelf'to the bulk of the public. I will discuss the matter with the Ministry; but if you want a decision now you will see that, personally, I am not favour* able to your proposal. Mr. Hughos added that the Ministry would consider thejnatter on the following day.

BRISK TRADE IN LONDON. The following advice, dated January 7, hat been received from London by Mr. W. W. Bowker, representative in New Zealand of Messrs. A. J. Mills and Co., Ltd.:—"The butter market is improving, and trade is brisk at 125 ato 130s. The Government's stocks are now soiling freely at 1108 to 112s. The cheese market is steadier at 84s to 865."