THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 546, 1 March 1913, Page 6

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

A FORTNIGHT'S BUTTER

The quantity of butter which has come forward for shipment for the fortnight ending on Saturday evening, shows a decrease on the consignments that have been sent away previously this season. The Union Company's steamer, which is to sail from Onehunga to-dav for Wellington, will carry 15,000 boxes of butter for transhipment there to the New Zealand Shipping Company's liner Remuera, time-tabled to sail for the Home ports on March 6th. Under ordinary circumstances the butter should be landed at London about April 25th. Although a falling off in the return is to be expected with the wane of the season, the long spell of dry weather has been responsible for a shortage of feed that has caused an even more rapid decrease than was anticipated. The recent rains should, however, have a decidedly beneficial effect and unless the weather sets in cold, more hopeful figures may be looked for at the next shipment. The present shipment will bring the quantity exported this year up to 245,061 boxes, and the total quantity shipped from Auckland for the year up to 301,936 boxes.

The latest report from the High Commissioner at London indicates that the outlook in the butter market is reassuring. The best butter from the Dominion is quoted at 119s per cwt., so that reckoning the Remuera's shipment as f.o.b. at Auckland, it is worth £49,525. In addition to the butter cons ; gnment, 500 crates of cheese will be taken by the Corinna for transhipment to the Remuera. In the latest report cheese was quoted on the Home market at 60s 9d per cwt. There continues to be a 3trong demand for butter from Canadian States, and there is every reason to believe that within the next few years the ove-sea Dominions will provide one of the principal outlets for New Zealand butter and other produce. The mail liner Marama, which is to sail from Auckland early next month for Vancouver, is to take 13,395 boxes of butter and a quantity of meat for Canada. The butter sent to Canada this season will then total 65,006 boxes, an increase of over 140 on last season.

The prospects or New Zealand trade with the West Coast of North America are particularly bright, and the indications are that before very long large quantities of cargo Will be carried to and fro. The fact that the seasons

of the two countries are opposite makes them admriably suited for the interchange of commodities. During last winter in New Zealand shipments of onions, apples, and oranges were brought down to the Dominion from British Columbia and California by the steamers of the Canadian-Austra-lasian and the Australian-New Zealand and San Francisco mail line, and now that the cold weather is being experienced on the American coast apples and onions are being sent from New Zealand and oranges from the islands. Another important feature in the trade is that produce shipped from Auckland would be landed in Vancouver in 19 days, which is just a third of the time occupied by steamers on the direct passage from Auckland to a Home port. Quantities of frozen meat are also being carried forward by the steamers to Vancouver each trip, and the shipments are on the increase.