A DEAL IN BUTTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 50, 24 March 1909, Page 4

A DEAL IN BUTTER.

THE HJSCORI) I'RICJS OF THE SEASON. A QUESTION OF QUALITY. The hearing of the Mangorei Dairy Compauv's claim against B. JtaeEwan & Co. for .Clti-i 13s 3d lor breach of contract was continued in the Supreme Court yesterday morning. Skerrett, with liiui ill', Quilliaro, appealed for t'«c plaintiffs, and Alt. I), liutcheu lor the defendautis. Robert William D'Arcy Robertson, manager of the defendant company's business at Xcw Plymouth, deposed thai he saw Air. Garner, secretary of the plaintiff company, on 17th August, showing liim a telegram received from thj defendants' Wellington office. The telegram, dated 14th August, stated that the Jlangorei butter had arrived ungraded, the quality was unsatisfactory, and their clients were refusing delivery. T'he defendants' Wellington oilice considered the contract had been 'broken. The conversation took place at a few minutes to 5 p.m. Witness had just received a message from the Jlangorei factory to the effect that 44 lioxeis of butter had been sent in for shipment, and were at the railway goods-shed. Witness indicated to .Mi', (jarne# that every precaution should be taken to see that the quality was correct before t'he parcel went forward. Wituuas rang up the Government grader, asking him to grade the parcel. The grader was willing to grade, but the Kaihvay Department would not unload- the butter, which was already in a truck and covered up by butter of other brands. The ibutter was not loaded on the truck by any order of witness' fitm or any of its employees, to .witness' knowledge. There was no trace in the firm's records of any member of the firm's staff having made out the consignment notes for the first two shipments of butter from t'he Xew Plymouth railway station to the breakwater, but a member of the firm's staff did make out the boatnotes. The charg.'s for freezing at the lloturoa Freezing orks in August last were Cd to members and 7d to nun-members. The charge ior cool storage was 2d a box for the first week and Id per box for succeeding weeks. These charges included grading. There was no special charge for grading. It would depend on circumstances ■whether butter for local consumption were put into the freezing chamber or into cool storage. Witness' firm had 'had butter purchased in New Plymouth graded in Wellington. To Jlr. SkeTrett: This contract provided for periodical deliveries. If the contract, which was made on a Saturday, were running smoothly, witness would have expected the first shipment to have arrived in New Plymouth in time for the boat on the following Tuesday. Unless there was a doubt about the brand, butter required for immediate local consumption was not usually graded. In all cases of butter for export the place of grading was the place of sale. There was no general rule as to the place of grading in t'he case of butter sold for local consumption. Herbert Gladstone Hill, manager of the produce department of Messrs. J. B. JlacEwan and Co.'s Wellington office, said that this contract was made on instructions from the Wellington office. The butter was required for what the firm termed its "confidential customers," who had to he kept supplied throughout the winter, without a break. The butter for them must be of the first quality. The firm 'had at that time bought a parcel of Bret-grade stor.' butter, made in April, at Is 3d a pound. Witness inspected the first shipment (37 boxes) from the Jlangorei factory under this contract. The butter was of very inferior quality, second-grade, and with a very strong "turnipy" flavor. It was a most objectionable flavor from a commercial point of view. He did not think it possible for a butter with a "turnipy" flavor to be graded firstgrade. Witness sent the shipment into tire grading store. Exactly the same thing happened with the next shipment, 44 .boxes. First-grade butter was butter securing from 88 .points to the maximum, 100 points. The trade definition of "best quality butter" was applied to butter grading 90 points and over. Butter grading S8 points would be firstgrade, but it would not lie of the best quality. If witness remembered correctly. about <W/, points was the usual standard of Jlangorei butter. It depended entirely on the circumstances in Wellington ■whether the firm bought winter butter ungraded. It depended ou whether the firm's Southern customers were .in the habit of accepting the firm's grading or of insisting oil ' Government grading. It was part ft witness' duties to inspect every line of : • butter that came into tll 1 firm's business at Wellington. When lie was not satisfied -with it he had it graded by the Government grader. He had had a good many instances of butter shipped from New' Plymouth being graded in Wellington. Butter would not be affected by the voyage between New Plymouth and Wellington in winter time. ' To' Mr. Skerrett: At the time of tliis purchase the price of butter was very high, indicating shortness of supplies, fn witness' opinion the grader nt New Plvmouth was -wrong in grading the 54 packages in the third shipment as first- *•" grade if he found t'he flavor inclined to be strong. He could not say that theie Wiis a difference in the grading of butter at different places. The standard of quality in winter and s,pring of butter from factories in this district was not so hfgh as in summer. William Grant, Government dairy produce grader at Wellington, stated that on lltli August last he graded 37 boxes of butter for J. B. llacEwan and Co. His comments on it were: "The flavor not clean; strong, turnipy taint." This was also the comment on the second lot. If this taint -were yet)-, very slight butter might be graded firatoTade. Witness did not think it was correct that un August 50 boxes of Man trorei butter consigned to Scott were traded in New Plymouth and subsequently graded in Wellington. He had - no recollection of it having been done. - Had it been, he would liave noticed the New Plymouth grader's stamp on the boxes. Witness graded a largo amount of butter shipped from New Plymouth to Wellington, including winter butter. To Mr. Skerrett: Much of this New Plymouth butter he had graded was for export. Witness was not the only Goi vermnent grader iin Wellington. It Scott's Ibutter had been required for local consumption it may have been regraded in Wellington. There was a difference of opinion among graders as to the application of the standard to butte but it should not be more thai half a point among efficient graders. There "was a risk, more or less, of deterioration in transit, particularly in spring and summer. To Jlr. Hutchcn: 'Witness did not think the two parcels of butter alluded ; to would have been affected in transit >• between New Plymouth and Wellington. • John Gibbons," clerk employed by licit Jendant company at New Plymout i, • and Charles William Howard, accountant ill the same office, also gave evidence for the defence. Counsel addressed the Court, rcv'iew u in*' the facts. Mr. llutchen submitted that the eon* ( trait was for the sale of goods by desenption, and that the defendants -weie fully entitled, to have the butter graded , at Wellington., and that unless- the hut-t-er traded first-grade there was no fulX" filment of the terms of the coutraet ; I- entered into, as showa by the defend- j x ant,' confirming letter. The plaintiffs 5 should have had the butter gradefl at » New Plymouth Wore shipment, with out being especially asked to do so. p L '* V feudants had no opportunity having it traded at port of .shipment, the B butter /was consigned by the plaini titfs j'roni t'he New Plymouth railway goods-shed direct to the steamer. As &, to the inclusion of the parcel of .July |T lmtter in the first shipment, he suba. mated that the contract was for the f < supplv of August "butter, and August butter only, and plaintiffs had no claim on that score. W Mr. Skerrett argued that there was no evidence before the Court, even by Mr MacEwah, that at tha first interg' view, when the contract was made. \ there -was any mention of grade, or any §* specific mention of the quality of the £ butter to ibe supplied. Certainly, then. I" it was not a sale bv description. This If "'' was supported liy the fact that MacEuaii SL and Co. had shipped, two parcel* of St the hutter knowing that it had not §£* been graded. There was a complete Wt waiver of the right to grade, and jjofe K thing could be substituted to take its he place. |U Decision was reserved.