LOCAL BUTTER MARKET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21988, 24 June 1933, Page 12

LOCAL BUTTER MARKET

SALE AND DISTRIBUTION PLAN FOR STABILISATION d’Eit United Press' AartoiiAi'ui.v i HAMILTON, June 23. Drastic reforms concerning the local butter market were endorsed by the National Dairy Conference to-day, following the outline of the t Sinclair stabilisation plan. A committee set up to submit a draft scheme for the local butter, market made the following recommendations:— That the sale of butter in both islands be placed under the supervision ~,of a central organisation in Wellington vested with powers to prepare regulations with which all the dairy companies and (or) distributing agents must; comply. ; That the organisation shall have power to determine (a) the wholesale pi-ice to be charged throughout New Zealand from time to time for bulk or pat butter sold for consumption within .the Dominion,;:including whey butter • (b)' the amount which dairy companies must charge for patting and . distributing butter on the local market: {cl the maximum amount . which any agent may receive by way pf commission or payment for acting as distributor for any dairy company in the sale of butter on.the' local market; (d) the" number of grades to be placed; on the market,' the amount to be allowed for returned empty boxes, the discount for retailers for cash payment, and any other matters affecting the price to be received oy dairy companies catering for .the local trade. The committee considered that the price differential as between, the New Zealand economic level and the world s parity prices, plus marketing costa, should be placed into a central fund to be distributed among the buttermaking companies.

It was further recommended that the committee be allowed to function, witn power to act in co-operation with the Dairy Produce Board, with a view to completing the scheme. The committee’s report was unanimously adopted. THE PLAN CONDEMNED * . OPPOSED TO SOUTH ISLAND INTERESTS. . (Peb United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 23. Emphatic opposition to the Sinclair plan to control the price of butter on the local market was expressed to-day by Mr C. P. Agar, a 'newly elected member of the Dairy Control Board and manag* ing director of the Tai Tapu Dairy Company. “ Nobody to my knowledge would sell butter below value on the local market or anywhere else,” said Mr Agar, “and : therefore the object of the scheme is to obtain a higher price, from the consumers iof New Zealand than the commodity is worth. I think that neither the public nor the Government will stand for this. The only other* objective of the scheme could be that the North Island producers desire to share the benefits pf the South Island local market. I doubt ‘ whether the South Island producers would be silly enough to fall in with this suggestion. I believe it is the duty of the representatives of the producers to obtain as high a price as the commodity is worth, but in these times of dire distress I am opposed to any form of exploitation of any section of the community.” All the other representatives of the dairy industry agreed with Mr Agar. One expressed the opinion that the South Island should not be asked to support the Northland, as the North Island had a greater export parity, that was what the scheme would amount to.