THE BUTTER POOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18090, 15 May 1922, Page 5

THE BUTTER POOL.

i Sir, —Very little has been said about the proposed butter pool, or the speculators and brokers whom Mr. Brashbrands as evils to be swept away. But it is pertinent to reca'l that when Mr. I Goodfellow was endeavouring to induce . i the British Government to pay 2s 61 per ; ; lb. for the season's output in 1920, the j j latter would not offer more than 2s 3d. j I After much telegraphic bargaining, the I British authorities finally said that if M.r. Goodfellow could produce evidence of a sale or an offer at 2s 6d they would consider it. He quoted 2s 6d to aja Auckland firm for 1000 boxes and they succeeded in finding a buyer in Toronto, j who paid that price. That evidence in- j duceu the British Government to pay j 2s 6d, and put thousands of pounds into ! the pockets of the New Zealand farmers, j The wicked broker's commission was £35. j Another instance. It was the wicked j British speculators who paid the butter , factories 2s and 2s Id per lb. f.o<b. in j Auckland last July, August, and Sep- : tember for 100.000 boxes of butter which j arrived to a market ruling at Is and j Is Id in London. These undesirable ! speculators who are to be shut out of j the trade, saved the factories £250,000. on that occasion, which the speculators lost. The same thing happened in cheese. Speculators bought outputs in | September last at per lb/ f.o.tj/»and i lost from 2d to 4d per 1b.., amounting to j tens of thousands sterling, which tho poor victims of farmers pocketed.' These are the dealers who are to be done away j with by the butter trust. Why ? Because ! they're a thorn in the side of the Tooley j j Street agents, who are -to have the ! monopoly—the compulsory monopoly—of j New Zealand butter and cheese. The J j control is to pass from the owners of tho butter to a committee who will be highly 1 i paid for their mechanical services in parj celling out butter as it arrives in Great Britain at the price ruling there and ; then. The five or six large London | agents will handle much larger quan- : tities than they have ever done before | and will receive a princely total of comj mission. All the New Zealand brokers j and commission agents who have con- ! nections with overseas buyers in Canada, i America, Australia and other buying | centres, are to be deprived of the business ; they have built up at great expense and Iby years of work. The factory suppliers j are accepting the proposal "enthusiastijcally! What with the wheat pool, the meat pool, and the dairy produce pool, j and a few others, New Zealand is be>- | coming a cluster of rings, combines and | trusts, worked by disinterested lovers of j their fellow man, of whom nothing is j required except parting with his birth- ' right. Onxooker.