Untitled

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18514, 27 March 1922, Page 6

THE PRICE OF MILK, TO tHE EDITOR. Sllt,--I should like to stijij-jort- a letter in your issue of this morning respecting flic price of milk. The competition in the retail milk trade was started primarily by a. number of blitter factory suppliers, who, failing to' make a living- out of the low prices paid out by the factories, started retailing milk at a price considerably lower than that fixed by the Dairymen's Association. This in itself would not have done much harm, but we are now faced with the spectacle of two large milk-retailing establishments engaged in a ent-throat competition and, incidentally, doing their best to force smaller dairymen out ot' business by reducing the price of milk to a ridiculous figure. It mutters not to these concerns whether milk is three ponce or sevenpcnce a quart. They have their margin of profit just the same, The producers suffer. Vonr correspondent snip gests that the dairymen should in a body demand a fair price for their milk, fret me inform him that while they would be doing this some of their own number would seize the. opportunity of getting hold of their customers. The Dunedin and Suburban Dairymen’s Association, which used to control the retail price of milk, is now no longer free flora that unscrupulous class of person who is always ready to better himself at the expense of hi-, tellowmen. The prospective winter conditions are all that, your correspondent slates, and worse Bankruptcy is indeed .'-taring the miik produce r in tin- face. It is about time the fit Council gave serious consideration I" the prooc'oti par establishing a municipal milk •siii-vly. If tiii.i were run on propel lines the producer aon id receive fair compensation for his drudgery, the public would receive milk at a reasonable price, and profits would help to lighten the burden of the ruteixxyrr. Wellington is now mailing a success of its milk supply scheme. Then why not Dunedin I .’ This city is even move favourably situated than Wellington for the adoption of s municipal system.—l am, etc., Live and Let Live.