Butter-Fat Millions

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 233, 21 December 1927, Page 8

Butter-Fat Millions

WEALTH IN DAIRY-PRODUCE

Record Yield for Season

THE importance of dairying as the staple industry of the Auckland Province is stress'd by the magnitude of the sums lately distributed to producers. In the Waikato alone the November pay-out, a handsome Christmas box, was over lialf-a-million pounds, and the year’s distribution in the province has amounted to more than 8,000,000.

JN butter-production Auckland’s leadership is so pronounced as more than to compensate for Tara- 1 naki’s heavier cheese production, and on this season’s results, as far as the season has gone, Auckland’s claim to pride of place in the New Zealand dairying industry is more than ever justified. An analysis of the statistics for the year discloses that the total pay-out to the dairy-farmer of the province, for the year 1927, was £8,350,168. This sum covers both export produce and * * SK 3K SK SK % Sfe

** X H* rl- & Hi & X HS that set apart for local consumption, and. is, of course, much larger as a result of the improved prices which greeted the higher production in the spring. The increase in production was apparent all through New Zealand, but nowhere to the same extent as in Auckland and Taranaki. Just lately a succession of dry spells has altered the complexion of the Auckland pastures, but in Taranaki the lack of moisture has not been felt, and Taranaki farmers are still rejoicing over one of the best seasons on record. DEALING IN MILLIONS

What the dairy pay-out means to the Auckland province, to its country towns and distributing centres, is evident from the size of the annual disbursement. He who calculates the total of the cheques to the dairy farmers

must deal in millions. By this wealth, the wealth drawn frem fertile acres to the north and south of Auckland, towns and settlements have been built in the country, and in the city of Auckland wharves, stores, and massive office buildings have been raised. Hamilton, considered New Zealand's most flourishing inland town, is a tribute to the power of dairying interests, for it unquestionably owes its rapid advancement to the progress of dairying in the Waikato. Should Brices and production level be maintained, an era of prosperity is assured for dairy farmers, of whom, it is estimated, there are over 17,000 in the Auckland Province, including 5,000 in the North, and 8,000 in the Waikato and adjacent districts. Milking plants are operated on approximately 8,000 farms, and it is estimated that, including the farmers themselves, there are over 33,000 people engaged on the farms, apart altogether from the thousands more who are employed in factories, stores and the offices of the large dairy produce agencies. THE SEASON'S SHIPMENTS Shipments this season, both from Auckland and from other ports, have been exceptionally heavy. Produce worth nearly three-quarters of a. million is now being landed in England from the Rotorua, which left New Zealand, early in November, with 122,910 boxes of butter and 24,351 crates of cheese, the largest consignment that has left the Dominion. Including the Rotorua’s shipment, the produce so far sent away this season has been 1,035,149 boxes of butter and 231,648 crates of cheese. Much the largest proportion of this produce was shipped at Auckland. Further shipments between now and the end of the year will bring the total for the earlier half of the season to 1,240,756 boxes of butter and 333,852 crates of cheese. Almost every freighter leaving for England carries dairy produce for the London cool stores. Substantial cargoes, in addition, have been discharged for: the Canadian market at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and at New York for American buyers, while of the consignments sent to England a portion has gone to West of England importers. Shipping allotments for the New Year will see 426,000 boxes of butter and 140,000 crates of cheese sent from New Zealand in January. Shipments maintained from then on until the close of the season, in July, will bring the total for the first part of 1928 to 1,776,000 of butter and 740,000 of cheese. Thus the total for the season will be: Butter 3,016,756, and cheese 1,079,852. In butter alone this will easily constitute a record. The estimated tonnage for the season in butter, will be one and a-half millions, over 200,000 tons more than has ever been sent away in any previous season.