BUTTER DOWN AGAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16573, 4 November 1921, Page 8

BUTTER DOWN AGAIN.

FACTORIES AT Y/AR. A BATTLE RAGING. There is war to the knife on the butler factory front. Hire© ultimatums were issued this week. The latest, sent out this morning, puts the wholesale m-ice of first-grade Canterbury down to Is 6£d a pound, one penny eheapei than it wu:» two days ago. Under bombshells ot this kind the retail shops preserve a steady front. They pass on the drop and tell customers the good news. The noon retail communique says:—North Island butter Is Bd. Canterbury butter Is 9d At any moment this list may get torn up. It all depends. As a matter of fact there are two wars. "While factory fights factory, retail shop fights retail shop. Everyone is making" a shattering spring push foi new customers, and no grocer goes to bed at night without planning a further phase of the price-cutting campaign for next day. This minute it is butter ; the next it may be candles ; and after that even bacon may take a turn for the worse. Secret diplomacy cannot hide the cause of the "butter decline. There is one factory too many and peace will not be declared until some one pulls out. Hostilities broke out when a new factory started and began advertising its wares. The other factories cut rates, the other people replied , and so on, until the battle developed with the advantage going first to one side and then to the other. The last move comes from the older firms. They are forcing the pace. “That’s bedrock now,” said a grocer. “ There can be no further reduction.” Consumers, however, can hope for the best.