Butter and Cheese.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 291, 18 April 1894, Page 2

Butter and Cheese.

NEW ZEALAND DAIRY PRODUCE IN ENGLAND. AN ENORMOUS TRADE. London, April 2. Antipodean exporters of butter have every reason, I think, to congratulate themselves on the state of the English market since Christmas. In spite of heavy importations a good level of prices has been maintained, and there is now a distinct" tendency to an upward movement, in fact, last Saturday^ even with the knowledge of 47,500 old boxes to arrive within the next four days, the Butter Committee put up the price of finest 4s. It seemed a bold proceeding, and one not calculated to help speedy clearance, bat that it was justified is shown by the fact that one firm of agents, whose arrivals were over 8000; boxes, had only one fourth left on their floors on Thursday evening. The committee, I may mention, has now resolved itself in a meeting of the representatives,of the following firms, namely, Messrs Trengrouse, Messrs Coey and Company (Limited), Messrs Cruickshank and Lovell, and Messrs Oetzes Gerritseu. Mr Dottridge seldom honours the proceedings with his presence now. . .. The total arrivals to date this season show a very heavy increase on those of the preceding year. Taking in the quantities ex Arcadia (21,170 boxes), Hornby Grange 17yl 37 boxes), and Orotava (BGSO boxes), the toUl to date (March 2) is 332,770 boxes or thereabouts, which equals 8,320 tons, or, expressed differently, 18,636,800 pounds. Of this quantity New Zealand is responsible for 62,574 boxes. Last season at the same date the arrivals were 197,124 boxes, or nearly 4,930 tons, of which New Zealand supplied 41,113 boxes. The following are the amounts expected to arrive before the end of April : — Valeto, 748 tons ; Oruba, 214 tons ; Maori King, 107 tons ; Rimutaka, 475 tons ; Duke of Westminster, 100 tons ; Ruabine, 450 tons ; Nairnshire, 48 tons; Himalaya, 300 tons ; Austral, 200 tons : total, 2634 tons. To the end of April then the quantity of Australasian butter imported into the Old Country will be- somewhere in the neighbourhood of 11,000 tons j or, reduced to the lower denomination, 24,640,000. pounds. Taking- the low average of lid per pound, this represents the Mother Country as a customer to Australasia for butter only to the tune of over £1,100,000 in less than seven months ! . ■ The rapid rise of this trade is without parallel in the annals of commerce surely, and it should be a splendid lesson to English investors in the resources of the colonies. I will guarantee that not one roan in a thousaud in the Old Country has any conception of the magnitude of this colonial butter trade. I have piv.n the figures to friends, and someh^e whistled, and some have cam Id y confessed that they believe my imagination to have been cultivated to the detriment of my veracity. Of course, the immense quantity of butter that has come from Australasia has forced out cf our market a large amount of Danish and French. But the quantity so turned away is in no way equal to the Australasian imports. An increased consumption has been brought about by the reign of " popular prices." Grocers and others have been able to supply fine Australasian butter at Is and ls.2d per pound all through the winter, so that the housewife has not needed to restrict the consumption, nor to fly to margarine, jam, or marmalade, as is her wont when butter of good quality runs up to Is 4d or Is 6d. — Times' Correspondent.