THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9165, 13 August 1908, Page 5

THE PRICE OF BUTTER.

BY TKI.EGRA.rH PRESS ASSOCIATION. | WELLINGTON, August 12. The price of butter remains unchanged to-day at Is 6d per lb retail for top brands, but good quality may be had" at Is sd. The fancy prices have, however, brought a number of poor makes into the market. It appears that Australian buyers in Wellington, who ordinarily would buy lines of several hundred boxes, recently took only little lots of fifty boxes at Wellington rates. As if in order to add to the perplexity the Government's agent at Melbourne telegraphed to the Industries Department yesterday as folows: —"A butter famine exists in Victoria. Butter is being sold at Is 10d wholesale, and the market is rising." The cable also states that there is a great demand for fat cattle, there being practically no cattle fit for the market in Victoria at present. On the other band, there was a | drop of 40a per cwt. in Sydney and I Melbourne yesterday, and the fall is expected to continue. This advice, forwarded by the Press Association from Sydney, is, confirmed by private cables'. Enquiries are still being made in Wellintgon for South Africa, but the butter is not to be obtained. It is not unlikely, , however, that there wH be some shipments made to the Cape a hortly, in order to fill contracts, and for this butter a fancy price will have to be paid. It is interesting to note that there has been a 20 per cent, drop in the sales of butter by grocers in Wellington during the past five days, and that jams, treacles, and other substitutes for butter have increased in sale as the price of butter has risen. If the weather keeps fairly genial for this time of year, and especally in Taranaki, there should be plenty of new butter coming into the market, and the price should fall accordingly.