DAIRY IMPORTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19137, 5 October 1936, Page 3

DAIRY IMPORTS

LEVY PROPOSALS

U.K. FARMERS' DEMAND

CASE FOR DOMINIONS

(From a Special Correspondent)

LONDON, Sept. 12. Widespread dissatisfaction with the working of. the English milk marketing scheme, coupled with th« continued improvement in the prices of imported dairy products, indicate that when Parliament reassembles next month Home farmers will he loud in their demands for a levy on all dairy imports to help them our of their present difficulties. Somerset farmers, for instance, the other day, indignantly pointed out that while Dominion butter and cheese priceswere 40 per cent np on those of last year, the prices fixed by the English Milk Board for manufacturing milk during the 1936-37 season were no better than those of 12 months ago.

Mr. Sidney Wear, chairman of- the Somerset Milk Committee, said that be had vainly suggested to the board that no milk should tie sold to manufacturers under 6d a gallon, as compared with the actual contract price of about 3-|d a gallon, in the meanwhile, New Zealand and Australia were sending over increased quantities of butter and cheese at guaranteed prices, irrespective of what they made in England.

SURSIDISINTi MILK CONSUMPTION The Morning Post's- agricultural correspondent- follows the same theme in a criticism of the proposal for a separate Milk Products Marketing Board to control the poduction and marketing oi Home milk manufactures.

"So long as Hie flood of foreign and Dominion imports overwhelms the Home market."' he says, "it is difficult to see how any Milk Products Board can help the farmer out of his difficulties. If the scheme were accompanied by a Government undertaking that an earmarked tariff would be employed to imported milk products so that the Home producer could produce'at a reasonable profit, the scheme might havo a great deal to commend itself.

".An earmarked tariff on all imported milk products, moreover, could be used to subsidise liquid milk for the benefit of producers and the most important class of consumers, women and children."

Health experts; and consumers' representatives, on the other hand, are of the opinion that- there would he little point in subsidising liquid milk consumption by taxing butter and cheese —;m obvious example of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Professor 11. D. Ivay, for. instance, told the British Association the other day that if the national milk consumption were raised from .42; pint per head per day to a full pint, Home farmers would not- need to bother about the production of milk manufactures, at all. in fact, it would take years for them to meet the increased demand for liquid milk, which would amount- to 2,2G(i.C00,000 gallons annually, or double the present total proilnetion.

LOUD BLEDISLOBS PLEA' Lord Bledisloe took the same point of view' in a recent broadcast address on Home agriculture. "If our consumption of milk," he said, '•were raised to the level of that in the United Stales. Sweden and Switzerland, there would be no glut, of milk or milk products in our markets, even if our dairy farmers produced their maximum, and the present exportable surplus of butter and cheese from New Zealand and Australia entered them without any restriction. "We must all earnestly strive to evolve a long-range plan which will save the efficient Farmer in the Old Land from bankruptcy, be acceptable to the great British proletariat, and fair to our overseas Dominions. "This must be the common aim of farmers throughout the Empire, and in seeking it we must never be tempted to drift- apart." The case for the consumer—and for the Dominions no doubt will be powerfully reinforced by the influence of British shipping and industrial interests in any consideration of proposals to tax or otherwise restrict Empire imports. "BRITISH SHIPS FOP BRITISH GOODS" The New Zealand dairy authorities in Loudon were, therefore, particularly well advised in releasing to the British press last week details' regarding the £11.030.030 freight contract winch the Now Zealand Government has negotiated wifli British shipping interests for the carriage of Dominion meat, fruit and, dairy produce to Britain. Practically every newspaper of importance in the country has given prominence to the announcement, and the editorial comment of the Manchester Daily Dispatch is tvpical : ' "Congratulations to the New Zealand Government," it says. "British ships. manned by British seamen, for British goods. That is the only way to meet the menace oi foreign subsidised shipping. Other Dominions please copy."