HIGH PRICE OF BUTTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 31

HIGH PRICE OF BUTTER

INCREASE IN FREIGHTS. RETAIL PRICES CRITICISED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, September 30. A number of questions regarding tha price of butter were asked in the Housa of Representatives this afternoon. Mr Hunter said he had just received a telegram from tha secretary ox tha Waipukurau Dairy Factory protesting against the imposition of an extra freight of 9d per box on butter. He hoped tha Prime Minister would give an assurance to the House that he would take steps to obtain a reduction of this charge. The Prime Minister said that unfortunately tha fixing of the freight rates was not in his hands. All the insulated space in the ships trading to this country had been commandeered by the Imperial Board of Trade, which was simply charging sufficient fre : ght to get back the expenditure it had incurred.

Mr Fletcher: They paid too much for the space.

Mr Massey said the Board of T-rada had accented the Australian freights ruling at the outbreak of the war aa a standard, and it was now raising the New Zealand freights to the Australian leveL He was afraid that we should have to submit to the inevitable, but he had cabled to London a request that the increase be not demanded t'nis season.

Mr Parr said he was advised from Auckland that the price of butter had been raised to Is 5d per pound. If this were so, he would suggest to the Prime Minister that, as New Zealand produced butter, the regulation of the retail price of it was in the hands of the Government. Could the Prime Minister have the price of a commodity so widely used reduced to a reasonable figure? Mr Wilkinson: What is a reasonable figure ? Mr Parr: Say Is 3d.

The Prime Minister said that when the Wellington price was raised about a week ago he was hr no means satisfied that the increase was justified, and he cabled to London for information. He wished to ascertain whether the local price was in. proportion to the price obtainable on export. He had received a cablegram to the effect that there was no New Zealand butter on the London market, but that if any were offering it would be very easy to place it at 160 s per cwt. A simple calculation would show that this price was about equal to the wholesale price here. However, he admitted that there was a great deal in the hon. member’s contention. He was sorry that the men in the butter trade had deemed it necessary to raise the price. Mr Fletcher : It isn’t the merchants v/ho are doing it. The increase comes from the dairy factories. Mr Massey said he had had a report from the head of the dairy division on the point, and he had advised that the prig© of butter hero was justified by the price obtainable in London. The price could be fixed here, but the Government must be careful not to interfere with the export trade. He believed that what had happened was that the Germans had bought up all the Danish butter available, and Britain was short of high-grade butter in consequence. He believed that until the London market was satisfied the price would be as good there as was obtainable locally. Mr Hine asked the Prime Minister whether he was aware that the practice in Taranaki was that retail shopkeepers were supplied with butter at Id a pound below the export price. He would suggest that if the Auckland people wanted cheap butter they could come to Taranaki for it. Mr Massey: I shall be only too glad, on behalf of the Wellington and the Auckland people, to offer to take sufficient butter for their requirements at Id per lb below the export price, and I hope the Taranaki people will come along.