FALL IN BUTTER PRICES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10896, 10 May 1921, Page 5

FALL IN BUTTER PRICES

EFFEGT IN DOMINION

INTERESTING VIEWS OF LOCAL AUTHORITY. PROBABLE BENEFIT. The cablegram from London, appearing in yesterday’s “Times,’’ to the effect that the British Government had reduced its selling price of butter by 70s per cwt was received with considerable interest in New Zealand circles. As the' message is important it is worth restating:— - ‘The Government has reduoed its selling price of butter by 70s per cwt, making Neiw Zealand 1925, Australian 186 s, Argentine 168 s. “Despite this most sensational reduction of price in the history of the trade, New Zealand and Australian are still neglected, as the Danes have lowered their price to 190 s, consumers preferring the fresh-made Danish to the older Colonial butters.

“The reduction in the prices of butter by the Imperial Government as above referred to amounts to 7-’d per potund. • The wholesale price per pound is as follows: —New Zealand, slightly less than Is 81 d per pound; Danish, slightly over Is BJd. The coal miners’ strike is probably seriously affecting the butter market, especially the price for Danish, which is largely consumed in the Midland and northern industrial areas of' England. The Imperial Government is necessarily losing heavily on it* purchases of butter, as it paid for New Zealand the equivalent of 2s 6d per pound in the Dominion, to which price freight, insurance, and handling charges would have to be added.”

BRITISH GOVERNMENT REDUCING STORES.

,A leading authority who was interviewed in Wellington yesterday told a “Times” representative that the redaction in the retail price on the English market did riot by any means indicate that the New Zealand produber was to be adversely affected. “Tlie cable,” he says, “simply means that the British Government is too much loaded with butter and has decided to clear some of its stock. The decision does not affect our producers at the present time. They have sold their output .and get their 2s 6d, so the British Government alone will he affected so far as the matter goes now.” For the next several months, he added, the New Zealand producers would have all they could do to supply the local market. ANOTHER ASPECT. Another aspect was that as the reduction . in price would encourage the pMrchase of butter, it would thus benefit the New Zealand producers, inasmuch as the stores would he more quickly cleared if the sale increased, and the sooner the stores are cleared out the sooner there will be a fresh field for our coming season’s output. In addition to the crowded stores a circumstance which had contributed to the decision to reduce the price of butter at Home was the weakening in the purchasing power of the people, this because of the industrial trouble. MUST REDUCE STOCKS. “We just take it,” he concluded, “as an indication of the Government’s deoision to reduce stocks. You must remember that here, at Home, on the water, and in Australia, the British Government has 50,000 hoses of butAs to cheese, he said the market was still keeping firm ; the .people must have their bread and cheese, whatever happened. '