BUTTER SHIPMENTS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1294, 6 April 1918, Page 1

BUTTER SHIPMENTS.

STOPPED FOR THE PRESENT. MOEE ESSENTIAL GOODS WANTED. [Special to The Sun.] WELLINGTON, April 5. A cablegram received to-day by the Government from the British Shipping Controller contains a definite instruction to cease the shipment of butter from this country to the United Kingdom. The available spaco is required for produce more urgently needed by the Imperial Government, and until the new order is cancelled no further shipments of butter can be made. The Prime Minister stated this evening that he realised the stoppage of the shipment of butter was a serious matter, but the instruction of the Shipping Controller would have to be followed. He hoped that the suspension would be temporary only. The fact was that at the present juncture the Imperial Government required every available ton of shipping for the movement of troops and absolutely essential goods and produce. New Zealand butter would have to wait. Mr Massey added that fortunately the local shipping committee had been able to get away a good deal of buttc already, and it would have been necessary in any case to hold considerable supplies for the local market during the winter. .It was impossible to say just what effect the suspension of shipments would have on the butter industry, since that would depend upon the duration of the new order.