THE BUTTER CONFERENCE

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13308, 11 October 1916, Page 5

THE BUTTER CONFERENCE

NO DECISION REACHED.

BOARD OF TRADE'S PROPOSAL

REJECTED BY THE PRODUCERS.

WELLINGTON, Tuesday

The conference of representatives of the butter trade with the .Minister for Commerce and the Board of Trade, lias been sitting the whole of the afternoon and evening, and has just concluded without result. The Board of Trade submitted to the Government a scheme which the Government approved provisionally, and this scheme has been submitted to the producers. Up till the present the producers have rejected it. file Board lias to deal always with wholesale prices, and it has suggested a- wholesale price for local consumption below the present .wholesale price, which allows buter to be sold at Is yd per lb retail. This lower price the Government did not at once adopt, preferring to wait until the producers had been heard on the question. To recompense those producers selling for the local market at a price less than that obtainable for export, the board suggested that factories should pay a tax on butter-fat at the rate of jd per lb 011 the difference between the fixed rate per lb for local consumption and the ruling rate for export. The money thus obtained was to be funded with the Government to be taken under the control of the Imperial meat supplies branch, of which Mr R. Triggs is to be the head, and through this channel disbursed to the people who had made reduced profits by selling for the local market. To put this scheme into operation the Government requires the consent of the producers. It has no power to levy such a tax as is proposed or to fix that price of butter. It can compel the producers to come to terms by prohibiting export absolutely. The probabilities are that the final decision will be that some modification of the Board of Trade's scheme will be adopted, and that, if necesary, the Government will put such pressure on the producers as will bring them to terms. So far as can be learned the decision of the Government that the price shall not be raised is definite and inflexible. It may be that the selling price will not be reduced, as the Board of Trade suggested, but it will not be increased.

The last stage of the proceedings today was a meeting of the producers alone, at which they discussed the Government's proposals, and decided that they could not agree to them. The meeting set up an Advisory Committee, with no power to act, to confer with the Government and Board of Trade, should the need occur in future.

A meeting of Cabinet- will be held tomorrow, at which it is probable that the Government will deal with the situation as it now presents itself.

BOARD OF TRADE PROPOSALS. DISAPPROVED BY DAIRY COMPANIES. (By Telegraph.—Press Association). WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The representatives of the dairy companit s after a conference adopted resolutions expressing disapproval of the proposals by the Board of Trade to levy a tax on all butter-fat on the ground that the levy was economically unsound, a class tax, and an interference with the small farmers, who at present are bearing enormously increased cost of production consequent on the war. A local increase in price was not only justified, but necessary in the general interests of the industry, owing to the fact that butter for export to-day was worth Is 7d to Is 8d f.0.b., tne local equivalent of which after meeting distributing and marketing charges was Is 8d 11) wholesale and Is 10d retail, as compared with a charge to consumers in Britain of 2s per lb. If any limitation in price were deemcKl necessary it was suggested that the cost should be a charge against the Consolidated Revenue, a precedent for which was provided by the Imperial Government with respect to the increased wages to railway workers in Great Britain. The producers set up a committee of cheese and butter representatives comprising Messrs Morton. Powdrell, Pacey. Mark, Fisher, and Ager, to watch the interests of producers.