THE CHEESE INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 261, 27 March 1913, Page 7

THE CHEESE INDUSTRY.

HOW IT IS IMPERILLED. MR. CUDDIE'S MEMORANDUM. In regard to the memorandum issued 'by Mr. Cuddie, Director of the Dairy Service, the Hawora Star says:—There is reason for believing that for months past evidence has been accumulating which has at last forced the Department to issue the memorandum. At any rate, as the complaints of Mr. Wright, the dairy produce expert in London, have been publicly quoted, the writer is now at liberty to say that during last season he was at the London docks and saw Mr. Wright and other experts testing cheese just landed from the ships. These tests were not by any means satisfactory, and the experts from their practical knowledge in factories did not hesitate to say that the cause of the trouble was the supply of inferior milk. The cheese tested came from various parts of the Dominion, many of the makers were known to be men of the highest qualifications in respect of experience, capacity and carefulness, and. yet as the triers were drawn out it was found that some cheese of the best-known brands in New Zealand was already in a rapid process of abnormal deterioration. The trouble was in the main unhesitatingly a ttributed not to the factory, but to the farm. It is probable that adverse reports on that cheese were sent out to the Department, and that tlje substance of the reports was transmitted to the dairy companies particularly concerned. But whether that was so or not it is clear that the trouble has been continuous, and that it has grown so acute that the Department has been urgently warned by its officers in London (men specially scut there from New Zealand, first to- keep a chuck on the quality of the imports, and secondly to see that the New Zealand producer gets a fair deal hi the markets), and has now passed on the responsibility by issuing this memorandum of warning. It is especially unfortunate that there should be so much weakness in quality this season, 'because owing to the recent set-back in prices the dealers will not fail to make the most of it. But apart from the faults at tlie source of production, it is r.mde clear by the facts put forward in Mr. Cuddie's memorandum that the lack of cool storage ami the inefficient transport, !irran«ei'i<'nts are also material factors in producing « state of things which threaten to very materially injure a !rmit siul profitable trade. It is quite startling to be told of the seriousness of these deficiencies in various parts of the Dominion, culminating, so far as the North Island is concerned, in a state of things at Wellington (where thousands of tons are collected during the busy season) which was responsible for ehee<e bearing first-grade stamps deteriorating to second-grade quality before it was placed on the ocean-going vessels. No wonder the complaints from London are so loud and insistent. Doubtless it is true, as Mr. Cuddie's memorandum says, that the rapid expansion of the cheese industry has quite outpaced the normal provision of conveniences and 1-lenities for satisfactorily dealing with the msiniifiictnred article between tha eurim: roam and (| u% ocean-going steamer, ■but never!lwless there must have been a lael; of foresight and prudence some- *"■' !o f-i'iiunl for (he very unsatisfactory oosilion which has now been laid here. The D»partn>ent. and the leaders of indti-ary throughout the Dominion will have to take the mailer in hand vigorously with a view to making a material improvement before the pressure of next season's lmsv rush is felt.