THE PRICE OF MILK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23828, 7 June 1939, Page 17

THE PRICE OF MILK

10 THE EDITOR Sir, —I did not intend to write to your paper on this matter, but in fairness to the milk producers of Dunedin, your footnote to a letter signed " F.0.G." needs some explanation. At first reading your note looked to me, as it will to other milk producers, that your informant was trying to play a practical joke on you, or, if not, then on the milk producers. The milk producers will be amused and very pleased to know that the milk retailers have taken them under their wing, as a hen gathers her chicks, and raised the price of milk 4d per gallon so that the producer can be compensated for back prices. Unfortunately, Sir, this is not so. When the retail price of milk was advertised in your paper some of the suppliers asked me to try to find out what the price of milk would be for June to the milk producers. I rang up three milk vendors and was told that the price for June would be lid per gallon—a little over Ud per pint—and that they may be able to pay Is for July and August How your informant could say that the price had been raised to compensate the producers I do not know, as these prices are the same as were paid to the producers when milk rose to 6d per quart, and the retail price has never been dropped, although the producers have had to take 8d per gallon and some as low as 7d for summer milk. I would like to say that the Milk Producers' Association has always been unanimous that the consumers were paying enough for their milk. My reason for writing this letter is solely to let the consumer know that it is not the milk producers who have been the cause of the present rise.—l am. etc., A. Spoor. Pine Hill. June 5.