The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1888. OUR DAIRY PRODUCE AT HOME.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1793, 19 March 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1888. OUR DAIRY PRODUCE AT HOME.

Our cablegrams to-day contain the announcement that " freßh butter, New Zealand, is at 88s per cwt. Australian is at 5Gs to 755. The market is weak." Only about a month ago, through the same channel, we learned that New Zealand butter had been sold m Grlas • gow m small parcels at a shilling a pound, which was considered slightly above its value, although at the same date best Cork butter was fetching 126s per cwt. Now these wide discrepancies prove very clearly one of two things, via,, either that the butter sent Homo from the colony is not a fair sample of what New Zealand can produce, or that m the butter trade, as m the frozen meat trade, the return to the producer does not represent tho true value of bis produce, but that the middleman is swallowing up the lion's Bharo of the proceeds. The latter may be, and wo fear is to some extent, the case, but there is also reason* to think that exporters are not sufficiently careful as regards the quality of tho article sbipped. What is wanted is that the butter should bo thoroughly worked and prepared and of even quality throughout, that it should be made up m convenientsized packages, and that the most scrupulous cleanliness should be used, and every care taken that the butter on arrival should present an attractive appearance. If all these things arc duly provided for, there is not the Bmallent reason why New Zealand butter should not command as high a figure a« the best Danish, which now tops the market. For it is certain, as can be seen on visiting the dairy produce shed at any of our local agricultural shows, that our pastures are capable of producing and our dairies of manufacturing as prime an article as can be

prod need or manufactured m any part of of the world. Bo also with cheese, the quotations m London are painfully low. And we fear that with cheese even more than with butter the fault is very largely our own. Evenness of quality throughout a shipment is not sufficiently studied, nor perhaps the making of cheeses of the proper color, and size to suit the tastes and prejudices of the British consumer, attention to which is 1 absolutely necessary if we would secure the best results Writing on this subject the " Southland Times " points out, that hitherto the arrangements for transport have not been all that could be desired, a good deal of the cheese sent to London having suffered more or less injury during the voyage. The "Times," however, alludes to the fact that great improvements >are being made m the mode of storing both cheese and butter m the direct steamers, but points out that specially insulated chambers add considerably to the cost of freight, and that "unless the quality of the article shipped m this fashion is tip-top it will simply not pay to send it Home ; for it ought to be borne constantly m mind that inferior qualities really bring prices below their value. This is the case m all kinds of produce or merchandise : the very finest qualities bring perhaps a little more than their actual value— -being m iact tancy or luxury prices — while the inferior qualities, as we have just said, are unduly depreciated. The producer should thus study quality above all things, carelessness or unskilfulness entailing a loss always out of proportion to tho inferiority of his handiwork." Care and thoroughness m this, as m all other matters, will be found to pay m the long run ; indeed, to be the only guarantee of success, and we entirely concur m our contemporary's remark that "it ought to be written up m every dairy and dairy factory that it is quality that wins the prize."