FIXED PRICE FOR MILK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19129, 25 September 1936, Page 5

FIXED PRICE FOR MILK

PETITION FROM NAPIER FAVOURABLE REPORT (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this clay. There was a general aspect to the report of the Industries and Commerce Committee to the House of Representatives regarding a petition from milk producers and vendors of Napier who desired that a minimum price be, fixed for milk retailed in the borough of Napier. The committee reported that the Minister of Industries and Commerce has statutory power to fix prices, but it also recommended that the Government should consider amending the Municipal Corporations Act to enable local bodies to control the position in their own localities, as the Napier problem existed in many other places. The chairman of the committee, Mr. J. llodgcns, stated that Napier vendors, with the assistance of the Industries and Commerce Department, came to an agreement regarding the economic retail price, but could not enforce it owing to one individual refusing to concur. The Napier borough was enforcing the tubercule test in respect of herds supplying the borough, and he considered that if the local authority had this power it should also be able to deal with the fixation of a reasonable price for milk sold under conditions which involved expense to producers.