SALE OF BUTTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22822, 1 September 1937, Page 12

SALE OF BUTTER

CONTROL PROPOSALS SCHEME FOR AUCKLAND DRAFTING REGULATIONS EARLY ISSUE EXPECTED Regulations governing the sale and distribution of butter within the Auckland district are expected to be issued by the Government within a few days. It is understood that conditions effecting a system of State control are at present being drafted by the Internal Marketing Department " and that they will be brought into operation by means of an Order-in-Conncil as soon as this preliminary work is completed. In authoritative*circles, however, it is considered unlikely that the proposals will be applied for about a month.

Provision of Licences No announcement is expected until the Order-in-Conncil is gazetted, but it is believed that the scheme will follow the general lines of the regulations now applicable in Wellington. These provide that no butter shall be sold by any person unless a licence is first obtained from the Primary Products Marketing Department, which has power to define areas within which manufacturers or wholesale distributors may sell. Hates of distribution allowances are gazetted from time to time. The Wellington Scale When they came into force on May 1, the Wellington regulations set out the following prices at which butter in pound pats might be sold wholesale: — First grade creamery butter, 13d a pound; second grade creamery butter, ]23d; whey butter, 12.Jd. The price of bulk butter was fixed at l-8d less than these rates. However, some modification of these prices may be expected in the case of Auckland. Within the industry it is felt that the regulations will imply complete State control of the internal market, the department virtually fixing the price at every stage between factory and retailer. It is a step which many competent authorities regard as unnecessary as the export parity price is the stabilising factor in the domestic market and makes an elaborate system of control unnecessary.