DAIRY ADVANCE RATE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22512, 1 September 1936, Page 7

DAIRY ADVANCE RATE

UNIFORMITY IN WAIKATO FINEST AT 1/- PER LB. GROSS TRIAL FOR THREE MONTHS [FROM OUR OWN tORRKSPONDENT] HAMILTON, Monday A uniform advance gross payment of Is per lb. butter-fat will be paid on finest cream supplied for butter-making and Is Id per lh. butter-fat for finest milk supplied for cheese-making by the dairy companies of the Waikato for cream and milk supplied for the months of August, September and October. This decision was reached at a representative meeting of dairy company directors convened by the South Auckland Dairy Association and held in Hamilton. Mr. S. A. Ferguson, chairman of the association, presided. Advice was received from the Associated Banks that they were prepared to make the following advances against store warrants: —Butter: Finest grade, £2 17s a box; first grade. £2 16s; second grade, £2 12s. Cheese: Finest grade, £4 10s a crate; first grade, £4 7s 6d; second grade, £4 ss. Banks' Liberal Rates Mr. A. J. Sinclair (To Awamutu) said the advances mentioned represented 95 per cent of the guaranteed price. The rates were extremely liberal and would greatly benefit the suppliers. Mr. Sinclair said payment would not be made by the Government until the butter was placed f.0.b., and figures which ho had taken out for last season, commencing with December make of butter, showed that 35 per cent of tho output had been in store for two months, 23 per cent for three months, and S per cent for four months. The liberal rates offered by the Associated Banks could be regarded as highly satisfactory by the industry, said Mr. Sinclair, as they would obviato the necessity of complicated calculations relating to five different grades of butter.

Butter factories could maintain without difficulty a uniform monthly advance payment to suppliers of Is per lb. for finest quality butter-fat, and Hid for first grade. If this rate was adopted, however, he considered that 110 restrictions should bo placed on dairy companies with regard to making a supplementary payment at any time during the season. .He was definitely of opinion that the great majority of dairy farmers wanted a winter "bonus" of at least Id per lb. butter-fat, and tho arrangement he suggested would enable this to bo done, but so long as the uniform rate of monthly advance was adhered to he considered that dairy companies should be given the utmost freedom in making supplementary payments on the earlier months of the season. King Country Position Mr. 0. A. Stanton (Kaitieke) gaid it would be impossible for King Country companies, with their heavier costs, to make the same advances as the Waikato factories. A good deal of discussion was centred on tho point whether tho advance should be a net or a gross payment. Mr. C. J. Parlane (New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company, Limited) contended that it should be a not payment, the share deductions and cream cartage charges being taken out of the bonus at the end of the year. It was agreed that the advance should be fixed for three months, and that at the end of that time the position should be reviewed, when further information was available respecting the costs of production and manufacture. Mr. Parlane's motion that the advance should be on a not basis was defeated, and Air. F. W. Seifert's motion that the payment should be on a gross basis was carried.

AVERAGE OF GRADINGS COMPLAINT AGAINST SYSTEM [from ouk own com .espondent] HAMILTON, Monday The method of grading dairy produce was introduced by Mr. J. E. Leesou (Morri.tsville) at the meeting of Waikato dairy company directors in Hamilton to-day. Mr. Leeson read a letter from tlio chief Government grader, Auckland, advising his company that the gradings of each consignment of butter would be averaged. Sometimes, said Mr. Leesou, the different churnin gs comprising one consignment merited varying gradings, and when these were averaged the result represented a considerable loss to the company. Mr. C. J. Parlane (New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company, Limited) said under the old system when butter was paid for according to the quality it was graded in England, the point at issue did not. matter much, but now, when an arbitrary price was fixed according to the store grading in New Zealand, the averaging of the gradings of each consignment was a most unsatisfactory system. On Mr. Leeson's motion, it was resolved, "That in order that justice might be done to dairy companies under the new split grading system, the present grading method should be reorganised so as to provide that each churning of butter and each vat of cheese is graded separately with its respective grades for payment under the guaranteed price scheme."

AUSTRALIA'S TRADE

TARIFF POLICY COMMENDED

The Australian Association of British Manufacturers, in its latest annual report, expresses the opinion that the Federal Government's new trade diversion policy will result in a net expansion of Australian exports. In view of America's notorious lack of reciprocity in her trade with Australia, the association states, the ■diversion of trade to the United Kingdom and to foreign countries more ready to ■buy from Australia than is America, will aid the Commonwealth, not only because the countries benefiting from the diversion will he more likely to extend favoured treatment to Australia, but also because the addition to the export trade ol those countries will increase their purchasing power for goods which Australia can supply. Tho association does not take a serious view of Japan's threat to buy wool and wheat from other countries. If the Japanese curtailed their total consumption of wool in favour of wool substitutes, the report states, the result might be a decline in the world price of wool, in which case the loss would be shared by all wool-producing countries. But there are signs of an effective demand for wool from the United Kingdom and the Continent, which may well offset the effects of any action by .Japan, even if that countrv took the extreme course of limiting consumption In the case of wheat, in spite of .Japan's action, world prices had risen at the date of the report (July 31) to the highest level for six years.