BUTTER CRISIS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12617, 9 April 1934, Page 2

BUTTER CRISIS.

FARMERS IN A QUANDARY TOO MANY ADVISERS. ‘The tide will assuredly turn; countries ill-suited for dairying \v ill not continue indefinitely to produce at a loss; and consuming countries like Germany will not continue indefinitely to pay very high prices for local butter when cheaper and better can be imported from Denmark or New Zealand. A little more patience and perseverance, together with common sense, will overcome the present difficulties and restore prosperity to the industry.” This is the conclusion to an article on the dairy crisis by Mr W . Jj Penn in the “Taranaki Herald. The writer not only knows Ins subject from long first-hand experience of Taranaki's basic industry but* he has also personally investigated its marketing aspect in London and elsewhere. Moreover, not being engaged in the industry he is enabled to take a disinterested view of it ; but like most journalists of experience in New Zealand he recognises the national importance of the industry and how much the welfare of the Dominion as a whole depends upon its success. Primarily the dairy industry is the dairy farmers’ business; generally it is everybody’s business as the Government appears to realise. Mr Penn is concerned at the multifarious specifics offered for ameliorating the lot of the dairy farmer. He observes that “the dairy farmers ot New Zealand—the rank and file—must be suffering as much worry over the plethora of remedies suggested by their representatives as from the low price of butter-fat. These representatives—are they really representatives?— rush about from meeting to meeting, conference to conference, passing resolutions and calling on the Government to come to the rescue, and no one seems to derive any benefit. The farmer goes on with his work, the cows continue to yield their daily milk, and the market price goes up a shilling to-day and down sixpence to-morrow without regard to the schemes for stabilising it at a substantial advance. the; real trouble. Examining some of the proposals —excellent in their way—made to aid the dairy farmer, Mr Penn comes to the * inevitable conclusion that there is but one sovereign remedy and that is beyond the power

of anybody in New Zealand, from Prime Minister to share-milker, to apply : Raising the prices of dairy products to a payable level. He says: “What the farmer wants now is a. better price for his produce. He doesn’t look for lod a pound for butter-fat, which someone has said is the lowest price to give him a decent living. That, however, is absurd. If it were true the farmer might as well dry off his cows at ince and give up dairying, for there is no chance or that price iir. sight. If the average of Is, taking one year with another, js obtainable the industry should thrive comfortably. The price must not be so high as to discourage consumption of butter and turn people to margarine, nor so high as to encourage production hv countries and people not suited for the purpose. An average of Is should not- be obtained by alienating the goodwill of our best—almost our only—market, and that is what we have been doing for some years.” ILLUSORY MARKETS. Mr Penn has no faith in markets for New Zealand dairy produce in the East as a remedy for dairy farmers' present complaints, for reasons that have already been given by “The Post.” If there be a market in the East (often most vaguely described) it could be for only a very limited quantity of New Zealand butter and cheese. Mr Dynes Fulton, of the great New Zealand co-operative dairy concern, already having connections with the East, has said: “Anybody can have the trade so far as we 'are concerned.” Fun is often made of the geographical ignorance displayed by people in Great Britain and the United States when referring to New Zealand, but what of the ignorance displayed of the East by many in positions of authority in the primary producing industries in New Zealand? Mr Penn is under no delusions on this subject. He holds that “the farmer’s business is to produce the goods, and he should employ someone else to market them for him.

“A few years ago he allowed certain individuals to persuade him that he was not getting a fair deal in Tooley Street, and that he would obtain better prices if he placed the whole of his produce under one controlling authority, which could say to Toolev Street: ‘That’s our price; take it or leave it.’ The industry soon woke up to a realisation of its mistake in adopting this tone, but the mischief had - ' been done before the tone could be changed. LOSS OF GOODWILL. “There has been a loss of goodwill and a search for other sources of supply, which were encouraged to cater for the British market. That, of course, is not the sole cause, perhaps not the chief cause of the present low' prices, but it is a factor militating against New Zealand butter. And unfortunately the parties responsible for this loss of goodwill still endeavouring to secure control of as large supplies as possible and are carrying out a marketing policy inimical to the best interests of the industry. “The individual farmer can do little to remedy matters. What he can do, however, is to pay strict attention to his own end ~of the business, keep his costs down as much as possible, and supply only the best of raw material—milk. He can use some influence in the election of a of directors of his factory who will disregard control schemes and set themselves to recover and hold the goodwill of the best produce marketing organisa-

tion in the world—tlie Tooley Street merchants. “It may be that in some cases there is overlapping of factories with consequent high overhead charges, but it is a mistake to suppose that one huge concern, under one management, carrying on its own marketing plan, can give its suppliers better results than an individual factory which has the goodwill of a reputable Tooley Street firm. There will always be ups and downs in dairying, as in every other industry. “During the last two or three years the ‘downs’ have been predominant, partly because of illadvised marketing policy. Every farmer can do something/ if only a little, to secure a return to a sane policy, to curb the influence of those who are seeking control, and to discard a lot of the ill-considered schemes brought forward at the various meetings and conferences.”