Taranaki Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 25, 1914. PRAISE FROM DAIRYING RIVALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 5, 25 May 1914, Page 4

Taranaki Daily News. MONDAY, MAY 25, 1914. PRAISE FROM DAIRYING RIVALS.

The report of the Australian dairying : delegation (Messrs Warden, McKenzio ' and Wilson) that visited New Zealand j oarly this j?«>ar, summed up, is that New Zealand is a better dairying country than Australia, and better managed. "The truth of the matter/" they observe, ''is t'hiat the New Zealand Dairy Commissioner and liia predecessors have adopted much more and effective means for improving the quality of New Zealand butter tthan has ever been adopted in Australia, notwithstanding the fact that they had a long start of us in natural conditions." The work of tlie dairying instructors, v add?d to the splendid natural advantages that New Zealand dairymen enjoy, accounts ior the wide difference that there is to-day in the quality of tin- New Zealand and Australian butters that find fchoir way to the London market." As this is a declaration by Australians and business rivals, its disinterestedness is undeniable and its soundness is not likely to be disputed (comments the Wellington Post.) Coming down to detail the report summarises the'factors making for New Zealand's prosperity, and one of the first of them is the large proportion of butter made from whole milk supply, notwithstanding tho advance in recent years of homo separation. "When tho fact is taken into consideration," says the report, that 73 petr cent.. - -of iho Dominion's export is made from whole milk supply, which should bo all firstgrade, it can be readily understood why there is so little second-grade butter exported from New Zealand to London. Moreover, nuieh of the 27 per cent of | home separator supply is gathered from ; farms, close to tho factories." In Australia the land of distances—a great , proportion of the separated cream is [ conveyed over long mileages, and someI times the delivery of it is not regular, I that the New South Wales Victory j has to work on a. raw material generally | inferior to the home separated article i received by in New Zealand. Thus this dominion has an advantage not only in the whole milk supply, but also in the narrower scope of home separation system. In passing, it should be stated that the visitors appear to Do in errqr as to the actual percentages. Last year 34 (not 2-7) per cent of the export of New eZaland butter was the product of home separation. And the proportion tends to increase. Comment is made on the high productivity of New Zealand dairying land. The greater the output per acre, the larger the number of factories. The more numerous tlie factories, the less tho transport. Arid the less tho transport, tho better chance i of thi! milk or cream being delivered in I; good condition. Slindful of their own ' environment, the Australians look on this feature with an admiring eve. i Apropos, they might, states our WelL lington contemporary, have quoted the striking fact, recorded in the Year-Book, that last year, within a radius of twenty miles of the township of Elthain, the valuo of the dairy produce manufactured was just on two million-! sterling. This factor of reduced transport arising from the multiplicity of factories is thus summed up in the report ''The land is so rich in most of the dairying districts that the supplies for factories, very much larger than the avoritge of Australian factories, are drawn from a radius of three and four miles, hence the number of whole milk supply factories in tho Dominion. Even in the north of the North Island, where the home separator is so much in vogue, tiiere are .'l3 factories in that narrow nock''of land north of Auckland, which shows tli.it most of the farmers in that part cannot have very long distances to > deliver their crca.m.-" To New Zealand itself the information that there arc 33 factories in tho North Auckland Peninsula—the ''Roadless North" —will come as something of .a surprise. Only the . other day dairying in North Auckland was in its infancy. 'With the advent of better roads, both there and elsewhere, • the condition/of transport will undergo ' a further improvement that no doubt F will be reflected in butter quality; and £ this incidentally furnishes another argu- £ ment for the Coveminent's energetic & roads policy. Pursuing the comparison t« with Australia, the visitors touoJi upon £ climate, and note, of course, New Zea- £ land's advantage in rainfall. "At the J* time of our visit, in February, the clover {, and English grasses were as green as £ they are in Australia ia the middle of j* November." High praise is given to ft tho New Zealand Government instruc- £ tors' educative work among factory managers, particularly with regard to [> pasteurisation: "It is almost incredible L that nearly the whole of the factories in New Zealand have l'or the [>.ist four > or five years been successfully carrying i on pasteurisation, whilst in Australia I few of our managers know how to do it, * nor have we experts competent to inj* struct them." Jn fact, the report of these Australian visitors representing £ the co-operative distributing companies f of New S'oulh Wales and Victoria, is a S> remarkable tribote to New Zealand | dairying, adds our contemporary. Hut £ much remains to be done. Grading of Y milk and cream at factories and pityl< ment according to purity (instead of L giving lihe same price, for unclean milk P as for pure) is one of tho reforms still ft to lie accomplished. It has Mr. Cuddio's iidvoi-acy, and seems to be the only ef- £ Active mean* of penalising, and liltif malely eliminating, the careless supj> plier. We ar.o glad, to note that Mr. [I Cuddies proposals, have been well re- £ ciivcd by the Mouth .[sand Dairy AbJ sociatton and by other factors in this » great industry. . t