THE EXPORT OF BUTTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19827, 23 December 1927, Page 9

THE EXPORT OF BUTTER.

HIGH DUTY IN AUSTRALIA.: PROFITABLE MARKET LOST. LARGER CANADA. :, [B!f TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] WELLINGTON, Thursday. The i decision off the " Commonwealth Government to place a duty of 6d per lb. on New Zealand butter and cheese means the end of a profitable, if intermittent, market for New Zealand produce. This was the opinion expressed by leading firms of dairy produce exporters to-day. During the past 11 months, a total of 200,000 boxes of butter has been exported from the Dominion to Australia. This is the largest figure that the export has reached, and produce valued at £900,p00. The erratic nature of the demand is seen from the following figures of exports for the last four yearly periods ended at March 311924, 101,616 boxes; 1925, 831,;' 1926, ,480; 1927, 61,306. In the middle of this year the demand suddenly increased, due to shortages of supply owing to dry weather in Australia, and during July, August and September the exports of butter exceeded those for the preceding 12 months. In these three months 70,000 boxes went from New Zealand to the Commonwealth. The new duty, exporters stat9, makes further exports from the Dominion after June next an obvious impossibility. The present duty on New Zealand butter imported to Australia is 2d per lb., while freight and handling charges represent another per lb. Prices to-day give little margin for importers in Sydney, and none at all in Melbourne, for butter . to-day is quoted-at Is 4d f.o.b. Wellington, and is selling in Sydney at Is,7d per lb., and in Melbourne at Is 6£d. Even in June, when prices were most in favour of Australian importers, there was not more than l£d margin. New Zealand quotations then were Is 5d per lb. and Australian Is 9d per lb. on a rate of duty of 2d in the lb."--. Thus, unless there is a very dry season in the Commonwealth which causes the Government to lift the 6d duty the Australian market for New Zealand butter is considered to be gone for good. .. „ ! If one good market is closing, New Zealand appears to have gained another in Canada, since Australian production was not up to expectations, and she had no surplus to export. Until the end of November New Zealand has exported over 100,000 boxes of butter to Vancouver and Halifax this season, 'against 6500 during . the previous, year.

AUCKLAND COMPANIES. ONE NEW REGISTRATION. One private company was registered at Auckland yesterday. Details are as follows : Graham and Lodder, Limited, electrical engineers and contractors. Capital, £IOOO, in £1 shares. Subscribers: Donald Edmonrl Graham and William John Lodder, 500 shares each. ft TAXATION IN QUEENSLAND. TWO-FIFTHS OF THE REVENUE. Speaking in the Queensland Assembly recently, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr; Moore, said that the financial position of the country was not sufficiently strong to enable the present standards to continue unless the Government altered its policy to enable greater production for export. In 1914-15 taxation was responsible , for 15 per cent, of revenue, while in 1926-27 it was responsible for 40 per cent, of revenue. Industry had to bear a much larger share than formerly. The Premier, Mr. McCormack, agreed that the State was'paSsing through diffi * cult times, but said that as long as they were not stampeded they would be ablo ,to manage. If they could get good seasons, in a few years they'should be able again to get the State 'on an even financial keel.

AMERICAN WHEAT CROP. / . LARGE SOWING IN AUTUMN. A. and N.Z. WASHINGTON. Dec. 21. The United States Department of Agriculture has announced that an area of 47 897,000 acres of winter wheat was sown this autumn. The area sown in 1927 was 10.2 per. cent, more than the revised estimate of ;46,689,000 acres sown in the autumn of 1926. The condition of the winter wheat on December 1, was 8b per cent, of normaL On December 1, 1926. tho figure was 81.1 per cent., and the average over ten years is 84 per cent. '

BEET SUGAR PRODUCTION. EFFORT TO REDUCE COST. The British Ministry of Agriculture recently issued a report by Dr. B. J. Owen, director of the Oxford University Agricultural Engineering Institute, which dealt with beet sugar manufacture, and which may have, it is thought, a .very important bearing on the question of the Government subsidy to the new industry, which involves a yearly cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain of more than £3,000,000. Dr. Owen has been engaged m a long and exhaustive investigation of the technical production problems of the beet sugar industry on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, and it is claimed that he has discovered new manufacturing processes which obviate the necessity for Government financial assistance. The report deals with the economies of the new process,' and Dr. Owen states that "the investigation resulted in producing a new sequence of operations and also new individual steps. The cost of the process has been examined, and the results indicate prima facie that it has many economies worthy of the attention of the sugar industry." It is claimed that the tests (showed that beet sugar could be produced by the new process for as little as £6 a ton, as compared with, the present price of about £l4 a ton. In case the figure is exclusive of, the original cost of the beet.

PROPERIY ;SALES. William A. Home, Ltd., will offer at auction, at their "rooms. Home's Buildings, High Street, at one o'clock to-day, 13 building sections at Takanini, with frontage to Great South and Mahia Roads, and threeroomed cottage on section with 10ft. front,age to Mahia Road; also, under conduit of the Registrar of the Supreme Court, housie of eight rooms and three kitchenette!!, on section 64ft. x 115 ft., at 48. Williamson Avenue, Ponsonby; and house of five rooros, on section of over three-eighths acre, in Royal Terrace, Remuera. C. F. Bennett. Ltd.. will offer, the following property at auction, at their rooms. New Zealand Insurance Buildings, at 121 o'clock to-day, by order of the Registrar of the Supreme 'Court, dwelling of four rooms, on freehold section, in Iranmerei Road, Edendale. ■*', ' , T. Mandeno Jackson will offer at auction, at their rooms, 9. Commerce Street, at 11 o'clock this morning, grazing farm of 54. acres. 4J miles from Kaipara Flats; ane dwelling of six rooms, on section 258 perches, in McDonald Street. Morameside, Both sales are under conduct of tne Registrar of the Supreme Court, at the request olt th Samuel and Sons. Limited. will offer at auction at their rooms, 83,. Queen Street, at 2 o'clock to-day, under instructions from the mortgAgee, house of foul rooms, at No. 62, How© Street* Newton.