THE DOOM OF BUTTER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 17, 26 May 1913, Page 7

THE DOOM OF BUTTER.

MiAHGAHIXE MTST PREVAIL. AX ALAHMJST VIEW. 1 (By “Jersey” in the Sydney Sun.) The cables have told us that Sir George Heid has joined the band of conservative persons who are engaged in the futile light on behalf of butter against margarine. Sir George Heid is not so much to blame.' He is acting in a representative capacity for Australia,,and. ne.(Australia exports much butter and no margarine ho is perhaps justified in (fighting for its existence of an industry. All the same Sir George Heid and the dairy farmers of Australia should awaken to the fact that haven’t a logical leg to stand on; tnat their efforts to throw obstacles in the way of selling margarine are on a par with the efforts of the old stage coach drivers to obstruct railway enterpriseand that the hostility to the use of margarine is as selfish and unsound as the intense hatred with which the early Victorian worker regarded machinery. flutter is a foodstuff obtained byroundabout and laborious and costly methods—a mediaeval survival. Margarine is a foodstuff obtained by modern scientific efficiency, directness and cheapness. In point of hygiene there is absolutely nothing to choose between the two substances. Margarine is just as nutritious as butter, and returns a fair margin of profit to all concerned when sold at precisely half the price of hotter. As for flavour, first-class margarine is indistinguishable from butter, except by analysis. To all intents and purposes margarine . and . butter are the same thing, with the sole difference that one costs sixpence and the other a shilling . The efforts of dairy farmers and their supporters to compel people to pay double ,the , sum necessary for fatty foods is much the same as the old-time millers had appealed to the State to prevent the products of their wind and water wheels being subjected to the unfair competition of roller flour. Tire task upon which Sir George Heid lias now set himself is to persuade the English Government to demand that margarine must not be so coloured as to resemble butter. See- I ing that, in England ; both the State and the manufacturers of margarine unite to prevent its being sold as butter ; there does not seem to be much reason for new laws. Hut the most audacious part of the whole demand is that butter itself is not retailed in its natural colour. All butter ;is faked by the addition of yellow colouring matter to give it an attractive hue,, ami the-ide-diand of Sir' Gtflrgt .Held is simply that England shall pcnpH one substance to be faked while denying the privilege to another. That, by the way, is the law here—margajfiim, flias'to Tie refilled VvfiHTpas it is rpa whi|s3 ]Wie-riufinj*%?hi!«r of Imttjer r encouraged-by. the. law-dm postdimpressionistic colour This f ajcfj, ( j.Sj, onb iwHicle shbuhffiieAtrnemberekl by the householder who starts to complain about the high cost of living.

But Sir George Roid, _;i Government regulations, nor the pleas of dairymen can hold back the progress of science. That progress has resulted in ,the , addon of, a . synch! tie t'ii’od; 'ecjual-to 4fn 3 original in ml ipd vstinguishable 'front it in ‘ flkvoiir, which can be sold at a profit .at half tlun That 1 ktiy l p&'iiks ’fit all are willing to continue' paying for’birtrer is one of the stiiallge? instances of the inherent conversation bribe human race. In spite of analyses and medical opinion, a great many still look with suspicion on margarine, and arc content to pay a' - shilling instead of sixpence to humour their suspicion. All the samp, this sort’ of person has a way of dying out suddenly, and the dairymen of Australia and other countries would be wise to be ready to stand from under. Sooner or later butter will be a thing of the past. The maker of margarine will be regarded, not as an enemy of society, but as a benefactor just as the man would be who could produce artificial wool at a penny a pound, or artificial bread at a penny a loaf. The only reason for looking with suspicion on imitations of nature is that they are inferior, but it lias been demonstrated beyond question' that- margarine in no respect is inferior to butter. The community which will willingly waste large amounts of brain and labour in turning the produce of the cows into a substance that nobody can tell from something else produced by means swift, expeditious, and economical, is only at large because it is a community, and not an individual.