BUTTER CONTRACTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13634, 13 April 1908, Page 5

BUTTER CONTRACTS.

■ ■ m BREACHES BY NEW* ZEALANDERS. A DISHONEST PRACTICE. THE ALLEGATIONS UPHELD. Per Press Association. , AUCKLAND, April 12*. Tho New Zealand Produce Commissioner at Home (Mr H. C. Cameron), anfl the Chief Dairy Commissioner (Mr D. Cuddie), liaving been making the rounds of the butter houses at Home, and as a /result Mr Cameron cabled to the Prime Minister, and followed up the cable with a letter which, made some rather startling allegation^ against those concerned in t*he.industry at this end. [The allegations referred to were published in Friday's Taranaki Herald.] These statements were referred by an Auckland Herald representative to a number of firms engaged in buying factory outputs on contract. One prominent buyer said there were undoubtedly shortages on contracts made with Home firms, but equally so there were great shortages on contracts made by factories with buyers here. He produced a list to show the shortage in the case of each factory he had contracted with, revealing an average deficiency of 20 per cent, over all tEe contracts. Asketi to what he attributed the shortages, he replied that the butter business was really a gamble on the weather. The phenomenally good- season m 1906-7 had resulted in big- outputs, and for the ' contracts for 1907-8 the factories' were, rather inclined to estimate; the outputs on the basis of the previous season/ Another gentleman closely concerned in the trade said that unfortunately in some parts of New Zealand the charges made by Mr Cameron were "a true bill." Some operators on the market had adbpted the "swing over" dodge. They had boujght outputs up to the end of March, and had closed contracts with Home firms at prices ranging from lOfd to 10£ d, and then prices went up in the Dominion to such amounts as 13jd and 14d, and the- operators lessened their exports and sold butter in New Zealand at these prices, taking the chances of meeting the claims of Home purchasers for shortage on contracts. The Home firms would claim, for the shortages on contracts at the difference between the price, the contract stipulated thoy should pay and what the produce was worth on the Home market. This would work out <from: id- to lid per lb, so that the operators reaped flic balance of difference between this and the prices realised in New Zealand, Whatever had been done in that lino had been done within the Dominion, and there had been no shipping past the Home firms. Of course, it was a questionable practice and would do harm to the industry. Undoubtedly there was a shortage, owing to the dry period, but the shortage *on. Homo contracts was greater than the shortage on actual factory outputs. Tjhe , dry season had caused the whole thing, it having resulted in short supplies and hence the temptation to "swing over."