THE BUTTER MARKET

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1799, 29 August 1906, Page 55

THE BUTTER MARKET

SUGGESTED REMEDY THROUGH THE TARIFF. The fact that butter was 9fd in 1898 and is now Is 2d to Is 4d per lb has at last impressed the labour community to the extent of their urging an alleviation by way of the tariff. The Wellington Trades and Labour Council last evening resolved, on the recommendation of its Management Committee, “that owing to the exorbitant charges of the butter ring, which can only be maintained while the present duty of 20 per cent, is imposed on imported butter, the Council advocate the abolition of such duty.'*’ To import butter to New Zealand, itself such a large exporter of butter, would seem to be like carrying coals to Newcastle but it is simply a matter of price. The Council considers that imported butter would fall under one of the n.d.e. duties (20 per cent, ad valorem), and that if this duty was removed, butter would come iirir.t a lower price than is being asked now. The reasoning seems to be that our butter people, who have to take what they can get in the open London market, have cornered the small local markets, and thus make New Zealanders pay far moro than New Zealand butter fetches in London after the long sea-transit. The Trades Council would therefore like to see competition, the element that regulates the oversea market, brought into the New Zealand markets, so that price® might find a reasonable level. A recent cable from Sydney mentioned there was a hubbub there because butter had reached, temporarily, the “record” price of Is Id wholesale. The action recommended by tho Council is on a par with the agitation for removal of the 20 per cent, ad valorem duty on potatoes, the difference being that in the latter case blight, in the former monopoly, is blamed.