The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 3017, 19 October 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1872.

The development of industries in Otago seems to be only limited by the labor available. So varied arc the means now-a-days of utilising the various raw products of our fields, and jiastures, and mines, that intelligent application of them alone is needed to enrich the country. The time has gone past for the primitive mode of dealing with flocks and herds, shearing sheep for the wool, and boiling down their carcases for tallow. Meat preserving lias added a value to pastoral pursuits that cannot yet bo thoroughly appreciated, and a memorandum presented to Parliament by the Joint-Committee of both Houses on Colonial Industries opens up a prospect of extension of dairy fanning in a somewhat novel direction. The manufacture of butter and cheest has already progressed so much that the Colonial products have not only driven the European out of the market, but appear likely to supersede them in supplying the people of Groat Britain. No doubt the competition and cost of transit will render necessary that sales should bo made at very moderate profits ; and it will, therefore, be needful that every facility for economising the cost, production, and transit should bo given. Yet there are such manifest advantages in favor of the Colonies that ultimate success can hardly be doubted. At Home the routs paid for the u«© of land are enormous : while

here they are only nominal. The feesimple of good pasture land can be obtained here for about one-half the annual rent of an equal area at Horae. Nor is it likely that this large item in our favor will long continue to be compensated by the lower price of labor. For reasons that we explained some time back, there is every likelihood of an equalisation of the value of labor, and when commerce and science have combined for the purpose, there will ultimately be an equalisation in the cost of living, which is at present largely in favor of the Colonies. It is precisely this inequality, that it is their special mission to reduce; and it is precisely because of the inequality that there is so fair a prospect of a long course of profitable employment of capital and labor. The memorandum to which we allude has appended to it several reports, that are too interesting to be allowed to piss into the oblivion of the Blue Books. One marked Dis “On the Manufacture of Condensed Milk.” It is a memorandum by Mr W. Buller, of 7 Westminster Chambers, Victoria street, London, under date April 30, 1872. He remarks that the manufacture of condensed milk “is beginning to attract some attention in England,” and it is worth considering whether it might not be made a profitable industry in such a Colony as Now Zealand.” He tells ns that for many years condensed milk has been a standard article of home consumption in America, and that at present there is but one factory in England. There is already a demand in England for it, which is met by supplies from three factories : the English Condensed Milk Company’s establishment at Aylesbury; the Anglo-Swiss Company at Cham, in Switzerland ; and the Irish Company at Marlow, Condensed milk, it ia stated, retains all the constituents of milk unchanged, and only requires the necessary amount of water to be added to reproduce milk as pure and wholesome as the original. Nor does the process appear to be an expensive one, as it merely consists of extracting about three-fourths of the water naturally contained in the milk by condensation in vacuo. The “residuum” assumes the consistency of a thick syrup, and a. little refined sugar is added to it. Mr Buller says this preparation “ will keep sound and sweet in all climates for an indefinite time, and even when exposed to, air will not suffer deterioration for several weeks.” Mr Buller says that the precise process is “ supposed to be a trade secret in England,” but the “ whole thing has been fully explained in an article which appeared in the Food Journal last year. As temperature is an element in the successful preparation ©f condensed milk, as in the case of brewing, New Zealand seems to possess special advantages over the other Australasian Colonies ; and as an article so protected is far less liable to damage by transit than butter or cheese, it becomes an important consideration whether it would not be the most profitable method of utilising the surplus produce of the dairy farm. The Anglo-Swiss Company sells about 2,000 tins per mouth, and could sell more if they could produce it. The B. and 0. Company, the North German Lloyds, the Royal Mail and Pacific Company, use it in all their boats. The tin contains the equivalent of more than half a gallon of milk, and is sold at Is 3d. The cost of the tin is said to be one penny. The English Company at Aylesbury charge for a case of four dozen one-pound tins 7s 3d per dozen, and for half-pound tins 3s 9d per dozen. Mr Buller thinks, in establishing a factory for condensing milk, no difficulty would be experienced in finding a sufficient number of skilled laborers, and that a ready market would be always found for it in America.