MARGARINE BOOM.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1980, 10 February 1914, Page 10

MARGARINE BOOM.

A HUGE DEILVND CREATED. A, COUNTER MOVE NEEDED. (To the Editor.) Sir, —A'S.'one of the leading butterI)roducing Dominions of the Empire; I tcol that tho timo is fast approaching when our Dominion in conjunction with other butter-producing countries will re--quire to take somo action to defend the buttor market against tile ever-increas-ing inroads of margarine. If we go back a few years, say to 1900, wo find that tho importation of margarine in England , was 46,000 tons; to-day this has reached tho alarming quantity of 55,000 toils, or 2,200,000 half-ewt. boxes. New Zealand butter imported into England is only 15,000 tons. . . . All'that science and chemistry can do lias been employed towards the' perfecting of'tins article, .with tho result .that tho margarine of has been so far improved that it is indistinguishable from buttor except to the expert. , tho early years of its existence mar-garine-was ignored as being of. no consequence, later it was ridiculed on account of its', basis of origin, but to-day neither neglect nor ridiculo can have tho.slight-', est effect in the direction of checkingits consistently increasing use; it is now established as an article of food, more especially tho poorer classes of the community, to whom butter, was a luxury. : Gradually the public, or rather that section of the community who uso it' exclusively, have como to look upon it is the same as butter; it is sold as a substitute for butter, not a,s margarine, but as "overweight," a term which las been derived from the fact that it is sold rotind about tho prico of buttor, but overweight is given m such proportion as to reduce the cost per lb'. to less than half that of buttor. This means its respectability is.enhanced by being ranged alongside of ■ butter. To ask for one pound of shilling "overweight" appears to bo much moro attractive to ■ some/ people than to ask for one. pound of sixpenny margarine. To ask right out tor margarine suggests a lowered social standard which must be guarded against at all cost, therefore, many housewives circumnavigate this by ordering ' "servants' butter" at sixpenco, or '"cooking butter" at the same price, which/is, of course, au impossibility, but tho grocer knows his' business and sends along margarine, and this ;mc-ans that margarine is gaining ground. ■ Extensively Advertised. Turning to the Press, wo find oxtensivo advertisements setting forth the advantages accruing from tho uso of margarine, which is advertised as "Nuts ;an|l milk." Iu all directions hoardings aro to be seen carrying hugo advertisements for. "Nuts and inilk,"-sandwich-men parade the streets informing tho million that margarine is what they want. . The provision trado papers, such as the ,r Grocor" and "Grocers' Gazette," aro studded with margarine advertisements. From time to timo interesting articles appear in support of this article, and quite.a number of, editorials extolling margarines and advice to the grocery trado to push it more aiid more. Provision trado shop windows are to be seen in all parts of the metropolis filled with margarine exhibits and advertisements. It may bo truo, that good quality butter will always find a market, and in tho competition which-is going to develop New ■Zealand butter by virtue of its quality will not suffer to the same extent as may other, imported butters; nevertheless, our butter must suffer in proportion. ' ' ■' ' ' . ' Tho question now arises: What steps, if auy, are tho butter-producing countries going to take to keep before tho consuming public tho undoubted advantages from a dietetic point possessed,by butter as against mifrgarino? It may .be that the near f uturo will find a diminution in our output of butter. Recent developments in the United States of America will, have the effect of still (further increasing our cheese production, and many more fac- , tories now making butter will go into ! cheese. We will still, however, have for I many years a surplus of butter. The timo has, I ■ think, arrived when our Dominion, should, in conjunction with tho Australian Commonwealth and tho English butter-producers, take some united action'towards keeping before the public the necessity there still exists for the regular uso of butter. v ■ . •-..'■ Butter Producers Apathetic. As I have said, on every hand and by all kinds of means , margarine is advertised; money is spent freely on defending it, while one might say not p. pound is spent in the defence of butter. Tho present lygh price ruling for butter is no oxcuso for apathy; margarine will only further benefit thereby, and next year wo may see the result. I think somo determined and united effort should bo undertaken to form a Butter Defence Association, and the cooperation of all those both in tho United Kingdom and tho British Dominions in-, terested in butter-manufacturing'should' be sought. ■•.'•• .' . Sir Geo. W. Watson, chairman of the Maypolo Dairy Company, in. a recent, controversy in tho "Grocer," stated that his company sell more margarino than tho entire output of butter from tho Australian Commonwealth; therefore, this one company aro accountable for tho sale of something like 1,200)000 boxes of margarine, or 30,000 tons, all of which is of British manufacture, and is therefore'not included in the figures, given at the commencement of my letter. . This is a striking illustration of the. colossal sale of this article, besides which thero aro quite a number of other margarino works in .England, apart altogether from tho Maypolo Dairy Company. Several ineffectual attempts have been mado to indnco tho Imperial Parliament to prohibit/-'colouring in margarine, which at present gives it the appearanco of butter, .but ft is hopeless to expect any such assistance. The margarine interests ' are united and hayo focused their energies in opposing this, and, so far, have-' been successful. Apologising for tho length of this letter. I am, etc., R. ELLISON. > Representing National Dairy Assn., of New; Zealand,-Ltd, London, January 1, 1914.