N.Z. DAIRY ASSOCIATION, LTD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 590, 2 August 1913, Page 2

N.Z. DAIRY ASSOCIATION, LTD.

SPLENDID YEAR'S BUSINESS. TESTING FALLACIES. A representative gathering ol milk suppliers met Mr Wesley Spragga nd Mr N. H. Pacey, chairman of directors and general manager respectively of the New Zealand Dairy Association. Ltd., on Wednesday of last week at Pukekawa. Mr Pacey said that for a considerable timo past the Dairy Association and other creamery dairy companies in the Waikato district had been subjected to misrepresentation from the representatives of the Goodfellow Company, and that in consequence of this a controversy had been in progress for some weeks. He. the'speaker, regretted this, but personal inclinations had sometimes to be sacrificed to a public duty, and this duty had made it necessary for him to deal with misrepresentations and distorted facts. Mr Pacey said the present meeting to discuss Dairy Association matters, and he proposed keeping to that text, except that he would take the opportunity of replying to an altogether unwarrantable mis-statement which Mr Goodfellow had made that "the loss in the creamery system was accounted for by the inability to get a correct test of the night's milk, and in this way they had experimented and found there was a lose of £1 per cow per season." Mr Pacey said that the Dairy Association's experience in a matter of this sort was greater than that of any other interest in the world, and on such experience he had no hesitation, in saying that Mr Goodiellow's charges, as againsc any of the existing co-op D rative companies, were unproved. Mr Pacey said be contradicted the statement on the experience of the officers of the Dairy Asociation, but he also put in the statement of Mr Cuddie, the Government director of the dairy produce division, he having asked that gentleman tor an official statement on the subject. In replying on the July 22d, Mr Cuddie wrote as follows: —

"Dear Sir, —I am in reeeipt ol your letter of 17th inst.. and note the statement made by Mr Goodfellow in iegard to the home-separation system. I have also read the newspaper account of the annual meeting or the Waikato Co-operative Dairy Company at Hamilton, held a few days ago. It may safely be contended that the returns obtained under the home-separa-tion system must be lower per cow than under the whole milk system. In the first place, the farmer who separates his own cream sustains and has to bear the total loss made in skimming, whereas in the case of the creamery system as we undeistand it the dairy company has to bear this loss. In the second place,, it is well krown thai; it ia extremely difficult to accurately sample cream which is several days old; at any rate, there is greater risk the farmer in this case than there is in the case of sampling milk for testing Mr Goodfellow's statement about the sampling oi the night's milk is quite inaccurate, as all well-known authori ties have proved that it is quite possible to get a correct sample from milk which has been properly cared for on the farm. We have heard many arguments in favour of homeBeparation, and some of them are quite tenable, but this one regarding the sampling oi' the night's milk is in my oDinion nothing more or less than fallacy. D. CUDDIE, Director of Dairy-produce Division.' M Pacey said that it was without doubt a fallacy, and he feared it was a fallacy which had been used for the unworthy purpose of discrediting the testing operations of the different cooperative companies carrying on business in the Waikato. In attempting this Mr Goodfellow had been guilty of what, in his (the speaker s) opinion, was the meanest bit of business misrepresentation whici had ever been exhibited in the Waikato. Without doubt, said the speaker, cream several days old was very much more difficult to sample and test than milk, and in seeking to undermine confidence on tho testing question Mr Goodfellow had started an influence which would probably contribute to his undoing, although the testing by his company was possibly as accurate as that done by the co-operative creamery companies. Mr Pacey said that his company was working on creamery lines and also on some homeseparation lines, anc! thit each system was capable of satisfactory results, although the liability to unsatisfactory work was greater under the home-separation avstem than under thß creamery system. In making these comments he did not wish to discredit home-separation, but rather to combat the unworthy tactics of a businesa opponent. Referring to the past season, Mr Pacey said the asso = ciation had manufactured 10,124,8741bs of butter, being an increase of 904,7951bs on the preceejing year's make. The season had been characterised by a serious drought, but for which the increase would have been very much more considerable. Mr Pacey said that the association's butter had been well received on the London market, and generally had sold not merely at top prices, but at a satisfactory premium, indicating the choice quality of the butter which had been forwarded. Good business had also been done on the Canadian market, and the association had, notwithstanding increased competition, held its own on the local market. The sales on th 9 local market for June of last reason were bigger than during any former month in the history of the association, while the business on the local market ending June 30th, 1913, was the biggest which the association had ever enjoyed. Commenting on the payments made by the association during the past season, Mr Pacey said that the advance from month to month had averaged rather more than £d per lb over (ho advances of the preceding season, but notwithstanding that fact there was the juihatantial sum-of- £11.077 16s 2d

ing a balance ot' £9621 -is 4d which had accrued for quantity bonus. Of the £11.077 16s 2d ihe directors had | allocated the sum of £-117!) lf>'3 for a i dividend at the rate of <: per cent, upon the paid-up capital in ivspect of shares allotted up to and including March 31st last, the dividend on first and second-issue shares being almost exactly per lb butter Vat on the basis of 2>loihs jvr share. A further sum of £GBfl(i 1 is had been set aside to cover a lurUicr payment to shareholders oi' ."'-Kid per ib upon butter fat supplied during the year. Mr Paccy said that when all the payments were included on a butter lat basis the shareholder-suppliers to the association's largest creameries would receive for year the substantial average of 12.47 d per lb (almost exactly 12-id) free of deduction lor cartage or other account. Tho shareholder-sup pliers to the smaller creameries would receive proportionately less according to the amount of their quantity bonus.