368 Journal of Agriculture , Victoria. \ 10 June, 1918. 



Mr. Crowe. — Following up this particular subject, I may uieution 

 tliat dairymen in Victoria have never received a price in winter-time 

 that paid them as well as the prices ruling in the spring and summer 

 time. This is due to the supplies obtainable from other parts of the 

 Commonwealth, particularly Queensland. Under these natural con- 

 ditions dairymen were content to produce as much as possible in the 

 winter-time. Since the regulation of prices, however, whereby they 

 get no more for what they produce in the winter than in s])ring and 

 summer time, their attention has been focussed on the subject; they 

 feel unjustly ti-eated, and this is how the most harm is done. If the 

 outcome be that indicated by the previous speakers, it would appear that 

 if the winter production grows less, each State should, in the oi)inion 

 of some, provide from the season of jilenty sufficient butter to carry its 

 people through the slack period. Should this course be taken, we 

 will have factory butter going into store in December and January in 

 order to be available for consumers during the months of May, June, 

 and July. In May, June, and July the storage and interest on capital 

 would require to be paid, and if consumers require to be protected in 

 that way, they should buy the butter, pay for it, and bear the risk of 

 the transaction; it should not be the producer's risk. (Hear, hear.) 

 In South Australia, each year a considerable quantity of butter is 

 exported, and when the export season is over they draw their supplies 

 from Victoria, and the consumers in South Australia have the privilege 

 of eating fresh instead of stored butter. (Hear, hear.) If it be com- 

 petent for South Australian consumers to have the privilege of obtain- 

 ing fresh instead of stored butter, it is legitimate for Victorian con- 

 sumers to draw supplies of fresh butter from Queensland. At the 

 present time there is sufficient butter being produced in the Common- 

 wealth to cover all requirements, and, further, if price fixing were left 

 alone, the price at present would not be very difl^erent from what it 

 actually is. The people in Queensland naturally were glad to dispose 

 of their butter, but since the price has been fixed, they cannot be 

 blamed for not selling below that price. (Hear, hear.) This would 

 not help winter dairying in Victoria, but dairymen would be more 

 happy if the irritating artificial restriction were removed. 



A Delegate. — I find from inquiry that in my district during the 

 past season 860 cows have actually been withdrawn from production, 

 having been disposed of in the saleyards, &c. This represents a big 

 loss to the dairying industry. My investigations show that many have 

 gone out of the dairying business, hecause they say that hy grazing 

 and fattening sheep they can get equal results. Jr'rice fixing is their 

 grievance, with the result that they have taken on something else with 

 an attendant, easier life. The other night I attended a political meet- 

 ing, and one of the speakers stated then that he believed in equal pay 

 for both men working long and short hours, and gave out the state- 

 ment that the average pay of the workman in Melbourne to be £2 15s. 

 per week. I inquired of him if a dairyman working sixteen hours per 

 day should be paid according to his work, to which he replied in the 

 affirmative. Whereupon I asked why, with Mr. Tudor, he advocated 

 price fixing, so that the dairyman could not earn half the pay of the 

 people whom he was representing. (Laughter.) 



The Secretary. — We are interested to know what work is about to 

 be undertaken by the State Department towards imparting instruction 



