PRICE OF MILK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3398, 30 April 1919, Page 25

PRICE OF MILK.

INCREASE OF FIFTY PER CENT. SINCE 1915.

At the last meeting of the Otago Labour Council the Special Committee appointed submitted the following report on the question of the city's milk supply, and its relation to the increased price recently imposed on consumers: — "In respect to the increased_ price of milk, dating from the Ist inst., it is difficult to see how, under existing conditions, the increase can be withstood, although sufficient evidence could be adduced to showthat a price less than 6d a quart would yield a good profit to the milk suppliers. " In looking fof the cause of the high price we are forced to conclude that it is Found in the arrangement which exists, and which has existed for some time, between the Imperial Government and the New Zealand Government. By this arrangement the Imperial Government receives the whole of the exportable surplus of butter manufactured in tho dominion, the price paid being 581 s per cwt for first grade creamery butter (roughly Is 7d per lb), and other grades and kinds 6omewhat less. The prices are so greatly in excess of" what the dairy factories received for their exportable butter prior to the war that they /can afford to pay the dairy farmer a greatly increased price for milk, and at the same time take as great a quantity as is forthcoming. As a consequence all protestation by the community against paying 6d a quart for milk would be futile unless it wore followed by a complete system of municipal control. Milk being primarily necessary as a food for our children, any reduction in the quantity or undue increase in the price must be to their detriment. " Since 1915 the price of milk locally has increased 50 per cent., from 4d to 6d per quart, and whilst it is fair to admit that tho dairy farmer, like other members of the community, is entitled to receive an advance on pre-war prices, yet it is held that the percentage is beyond what may bo termed fair and reasonable. "The arrangement with the Imperial Government for the supply of cheese and

butter will not terminate until the Ist July, and tho 31st July, 1920, respectively, and there is no prospect of any diminuation in price before the end of these periods, or even later, unless by Government or municipal intervention."