BRITAIN'S DAIRY FARM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 291, 3 May 1911, Page 3

BRITAIN'S DAIRY FARM

LONDON BUYER'S OPINION. A WOULD-WIDE COMPARISON. Hawera, April 29. "Britain's dairy farm, the best butter country iu the world," is the description of New Zealand given by Jdr. Samuel Turner, representative of the London dairy produce firm of Messrs. Lonsdale and Co., who recently took the whole front page of the Daily Mail to advertise the Dominion's butter. Speaking to a large audiencd'of Taranaki farmers at the foundation stone laying of the Kaupokonui dairy factory to-day, Mr. Turner stated that New Zealand's butter output had increased by 15,000 tons in the last six years. This enormbus development was due to the Dominion's remarkable climatic advantages. He made ail interesting comparison between the various dairying producing countries of the world, all ot which he had visited, demonstrating the Dominion's superiority over them all. Siberia, he explained, could not produce good cheese because the climate was too hot in summer and too cold in winter, when it even froze off the cows' tails. Australia could only make indifferent cheese, while the Argentine could not produce it at all. Great Britain produced a good deal of cheese, but it required to import considerably, and as Canada's export had gone down by one and a half million boxes, New Zealand should step in and fill the gap. He had been eight hundred miles into Siberia, where he came across a factory which produced only a hundredweight of butter a month. Yet it sent it four hundred miles to the railway and then another four hundred miles to the port of shipment for England. Kaupokonui had already the biggest-cheese output in the world, and it was going to have the biggest factory. Co-operation was developed to a high pitch in New Zealand. The cleverest men among the farmers had been elected as directors, and they had exercised great foresight. They had built lip co-operative associations which were second to none in the world' for power and combination. Suppliers must not think there was no competition because they were co-operative concerns. He assured his hearers that the competition was considerable. TIIE FOUNDATION.

What was the foundation of the sue,-' cess of the industry ? Government grading was the solid foundation on which it had been based. This and the instruction of the factory managers hud made New Zealand wlmt the Englishman would call ''Britain's dairy farm." llis company had spent £3OO in on« issue of the Daily Mail to. advertise that fact. The New Zealand graders had held the scales of justice so evenly that all New Zealand butter and cheese was sold in England merely ■ on the graders' certificate as first grade. (Applause.) If the grading system was not reliable there would be big warehouses for regrading and storage in Wellington, and gambling and speculation would go on, with no good result to the industry. The Government was wise in being strict with regard to sanitation of the factories, and the, producers should never listen to advice to do away with the grading system. Mr. D. Cuddie, Dairy Commissioner (who was received with musical honors), declared that the best cheese and butter of New Zealand were equal to the best of any country. There were defects in some respects, .which could be remedied. Some people went for quantity, but it must not be allowed to prejudice quality. One of the pleasing features of the work of himself and his officers was the close and friendly relations between them and the factory managers and directors.