The Dairy Industry

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43336, 11 June 1908, Page 2

The Dairy Industry

, The annual report of the National j Dairy Association of New Zealand ' (South Island) for the year ending | May 31st contains some interesting ! facts concerning the colonial dairy produce trade. As an illustration of the extent to which Great Britain is | dependent upon outside sources, and particularly her colonies, for food 1 supplies, mention is made of the growth of the exports of frozen meat

during the last twenty years, all of which extra supply is readily absorbed. It is therefore assumed that as in case of frozen meat, there is ample room for New Zealand and all British colonies to double or

treble their exports of dairy produce as soon as possible. In reviewing the report, the “ Press ” points _ out that Canada was the first British colony to begin supplying the British market with dairy produce. This was forty-two ago only, and it was then the first experimental shipments of cheese were made. Previous to this Canadian cheese was unknown in Britain. In the year *1904 the British market absorbed over 98,000 tons cf Canadian cheese, in which year the Canadian maximum export was reached. It was in 1883— just twenty-five years ago—that the first shipment of frozen butter was sent to London from

New Zealand by the ship Dunedin. It was farmers’ milled butter, for factories were not then started. In 1882 the Pioneer dairy factory at Edendale, in Southland, exported the first fifty tons of factory-made cheese, and was awarded the Government bonus of £ soo. Australia and New Zealand began the regular export from butter factories in the year 1888, and the trade grew rapidly after these factories were organised. In the year 1891 the Association recorded the fact that the total export from New Zealand was 1196 tons of butter and 1146 tons of cheese. In 1907 the

exports of cheese from the three British colonies were as follows Canada 90,679 tons, New Zealand 8579 tons, Australia 160 tons. For the same year the butter exports were :—Australia 34,023 tons, New Zealand 14,852 tons, Canada 5222 tons. The report goes on to state that Great Britain has taken from her colonies, then, about 100,000 tons of cheese and. over 57,000 tons of butter without any difficulty or sign of over-supply. In fact, during the past two years or so prices for both butter and cheese have been much higher than the average of previous years—this without taking into account at all the sensational and temporary high prices that ruled for butter in London for a few days this year. ’ 1