BUTTER AND CHEESE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3145, 25 July 1917, Page 8

BUTTER AND CHEESE

SOME INTERESTING OBSER-

VATIONS

-■ Dairy farmers may bo interested in Sir James Wilson's referenco.td the butter 'Bad cheese position in the courso of his address to the Farmers' Union Conference yesterday. Sir James. Wilson said:

"Cheeso was ;ilso purchased during tho ' Beacon just past, and tho price stems to "have been a fair one;.but the ' question ■ has been a difficulty. This "seems to bo in a, fair ivav of being ar- ' ranged, and increased storago provided at tho different ports' to/take in a much ' larger quantity during tlio coming season. rshon|d expect that even the ad- ' dition'al storage will botaxedto the. iil- ' most. Especially is this the esse in "the 'Auckland' province,' ivhich during tho last few seasons has enormously increased; its dairying area. T'ho proposed ' fctorago will bring the total up to 202,000 crates,. i£, completed. There .are 130,572 crates in'storo'. at present.. " '''gutter'is ' in'.tho. unique,, position of havihg'bcen l left, free to export, aud' has realised grea-t prites, but both butler and . cheese producers'got a nasty knock v.hen they had to. provido a levy lo enable . townspeople, to get their butter at 3d: a pound cheaper; it is extraordinary how ..differently the townspeople and tho producers look upon this question. . Nothing

irill convince the producer that it is fair to tako from his pocket a sum t;f ironey (in many cases ill a week) to put it directly- into another man's pyckct without it going through tho usual channel. Tlio townspeople srailo and soy 'food business,' and to conceal tlio .-bad case (hey" have, they abuso tho producer for objecting, and, as tho slang phrase has it: -'talk through their hat' about tho boys at tho front.

"A much moro serious position may. bo in store for the butter producer if things go on they arc, viz.: no room lo store his butler while awaiting shipment. This is causing n great deal of anxiety, and tho dairy people are proposing to the Government that Ihey should prohibit U)e. slaughter'of lauihs to allow their butler to be :tored. This would only shift tho loss from ono set of men tq another, and docs lot ofl'er any real solution of the difficulty. Tho real solution is more cold storage space. I understand that the freezing companies of Jvow Zealand have more power than is required for their present space, and if freezing chambers were added there is enough, power available to tako in nearly all tho butter we can make in the season. This is the time for action. Ono of bur principal industries is. threatened. It gives a living to thousands of very small farmers who will bo rr.iiied if their year's produce has to be racri- | ficed. _This can ho very largely obviated by tho expenditure of, say, .-.ilOO.GOO: but the industry is worth to the ."Dominion some three million pounds. If I am correct, then, as an insurance against the loss of such an industry, the .money ought to be found cither by ihc freezing companies, the dairy companies interested, or the Government: but if action is decided upon, the money must be found, and it could easily be done conjointly. The Government could lend the money if necessary, and u-iditi'mal space' equal to two million freight carcasses might save tiie situation for all concerned. No one can tell what is in front of us, and we ought to prepare for the worst; the only difficulty may he pipes. Government must tfilce action, aiid it were well it were done ([iiickly. .No doubt, tho Efficiency Board have all the necessary information, and probably by this time .have made recommendations to Government oa the matter."