THE EXPORT OF BUTTER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 937, 14 February 1890, Page 20

THE EXPORT OF BUTTER.

IS THE TRADE BENEFICIAL TO PRODUCERS 1 Much diversity of opinion (says the Melbourne Age) exists oil the question whether the recent exportation of butter to the London market under the auspices of the Agricultural Department, and fostered by Government bonuses, has proved beneficial either to Victorian producers or consumers. Mr D. Wilson, the Victorian Government dairy expert, asserts that it has, at any rate to the former. In a report to tha Minister of Agriculture, in reference to the final shipment of this season’s butter, Mr Wilson states that the total amount sent to London was 860,033 pounds g-oss, which realised up to L 5 16s per ca t. , “ showing a clear profit on the Victorian ruling rates of L 25,000.” Mr Wilson has also asserted that if the 860,0381 b of butter had not been sent out of the colony it would have glutted the market to such an extent as to sell down as low as 2d per lb, and it is in the difference between that figure and the price realised in London, less freightage and other charges, that constitutes the profit of L 25,000, which Mr Wilson contends, has bi-en made by tbe producers who sent butler to London. This is the case from Mr Wilson’s point of view. On the other hand, the loading butter merchants and salesmen of Melbourne, same of whom have been interviewed-by a representatives of the Age, assert that Mr Wil 3ou’a statements are inaccurate, and his figures equally unreliable. They support i.h-ir opinion by documentary evidence. The sale notes of transactions made o" Thursday -and during the length of whan is termed ihe“g ut season” for each of the last, three years were produced and submitted to our representative. They ridicule the statement that if the butter had remained in the Colony it would have sold down to 2d per lb, and point to the fact that even on Thursday a large quantity of prime butter in casks exactly similar in quality io that exported sold at Is per lb. In answer to the question, “If the butter sent to London had re-

mained in the colony would it have sold for an equal price 1 ” the salesmen emphatically replied in the affirmative. The manager of one establishment asserts that the whole of the butter would have realised in Melbourne a gross at least equal to the net results obtained in London,without counting the bonus. “As to the statement of Mr Wilson,” remarked the same gentleman, “that if the butter had remained in the colony it would have sold at 2d per lb., it is one of those assertions which only make those who know about the matter laugh at the absurdity of such a thing. No housewife would be gulled with the statement, and even paterfamilias, who is not supposed to know very much about that portion of domestic economy relating to food supplies, will tell you that the thing is absurd. Three years ago prime butter at this time of the year realised Is 6d per lb ; two years ago, Is 2d to Is 4d ; and at the commencement of 1889 good butter sold at 71b and 81b per lb. The complaint of housewives now is that they have to pay Is 6d to Is 8d per lb retaU for butter not equal in quality to that sent to London and sold for Is.”

Another leading salesman asserted that there never has been a glut of prime butter in the Victorian markets, and that, on the contrary, the demand for butter of first-class quality has not been met. He showed his sale notes of transactions made on Thursday, in which the price ranged from lOd to Is per lb. In his opinion the effect of sending the butter to London was to drain the market of the very prime sorts, and to compel the Victorian consumer to pay higher rates for second quality butter. With regard to the question as to whether the market would have been glutted if the exported butter had remained in the Colony, one salesman remarked that tho total shipment was estimated at 500 tons, or 10,000 casks. “My sales during the last three months averaged 1500 casks per week. At that rate atone how long would the exported butter glut the market ? ”

It is also contended by the butter merchants that, leaving the bonus outside of the question altogether, if the exported butter bad been sold in Melbourne the producers would have received better returns. The result is demonstrated in the following manner : —The total cost of landing the butter was 3d per lb. As it sold at Is, the producer would receive a net return of 9d. Butter of exactly the same quality sold in Melbourne at the same time for Is per lb. The charges (commission, &c.) locally amount to Id per lb, so that the producer received a net return of lid per lb. Conflicting opinions are expressed by some of the salesmen as to the advisableness of exportation, some holding that it is a desirable thing, whilst others do not approve it, on the ground that by sending Home «ill the prime butter the Victorian consumer is compelled to pay a higher price for a second quality butter. There is, however, a consensus of opinion that the probability of the market being glutted always depends in a great measure upon tbe nature of the seasons in the different colonies. If there is a dry season in Victoria the grass becomrs scarce, and the quantity of butter made falls off to such an extent that it has to be imported from New Zealand. This has already happened, and it is asserted that even now, should the weather continue dry for any length of time during this year, salesmen will be compelled to import from the sister colonies. In the same way dry seasons in the adjacent colonies have forced them to draw heavily upon Victorian butter. All of which, the butter merchants contend, goes to show that the “ glutted market” and die consequence it would involve, of producers having to sell at “2d per lb,” exist only in the imagination of the Government dairy expert.