DANIEL J. HUGHES V. WHEY BUTTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 148, 17 November 1914, Page 8

DANIEL J. HUGHES V. WHEY BUTTER.

To the Editor. Siv, —I notice the Liberal candidate for New Plymouth, Daniel J. Hughes, has a great deal to say at liia meetings re the Massejr party for not putting a more distinguishing brand on whey butter, as between pure creamery butter, and ho says: "Whey butter is all right when fresh, but when it gets to London it is oily, fishy, acid and lacka aroma, and this knowledge he gained from reports while a director of the Kaupokonui Dairy Company." He further Baid: "The big factories in Southern Taranaki, together with the Massey party, arranged to have whey butter branded 'Pure Factory Butter,' and the best article 'Pure Creamery Butter,' and now the genuine butter factories are suffering from similar brands, but he omitted to moiiiovi the boxes also bear the grade marks. Now, while I do not want to interfere iu an outside electorate, nor do T object to Mr Hughes trying to avoid a licavy defeat by any means possible, I do object to him falsely belittling my dairy eimipany and the whey butter made by us in his endeavour to grease Mr Massey and the Reform part}'. I say most emphatically (hut we never had any such report, or any report whatever, cither from the jiraders in New Zealand, or from our Home buyers, and, what is more, Mr Hughes was a director nine months inter we started making whey butter, m> would have had little opportunity to pee reports had there been any. ' During the three years that we have been making whey butter it has been handled by tile one firm, Lonsdale and Co., on a f;ii:irantee without recourse, and last year we had a guarantee without recourse of lid, irrespective of grade, whkh was nearly, if not equal, to best ufi'i r.< for creamery butter at time of our r.witract. These facts alone disprove Jilr D. J. Hughes' statements. Mr Hughes, while on our Board, did not in any way object to the similarity of the brands between whey and ercamery butter, but when he moved !'• New Plymouth he found all the facinries in that district were butter as he wanted votes, he hit upon this plan to crawl to power, no matter how this great whey butter Industry suffered. Had D, J. Hughes the power to look ahead ho would have seen that butter is likely ts realise this year 12} d and cheese between Is 3d and !s 4d, so all factories in the near future will be making cheese, and will not w;mt this whey butter branding (cart grease, first grade), should Mr Hughes become M.P.

Already seven factories in .South Taranaki are making about £23,000 worth of whey butter yearly and the Kaupokomii Company are making over £SOOO yearly, and I have no doubt all settlers will be very grateful to Mr Hughes for Ilia thoughtless suggestion. Some factories are getting up to !>0 per cent, of whey butter for the season, though first grade. If this is so, and the artMe is as bad as Mr Hughes profes#e» ( the graders should be dismissed. Mr Hughes while in our district was absolutely unprogressive, and [ will record his action 011 one matter alone and that of whey butter. In lflU. I suggested obtaining a whey butter plant, the estimated cost not to exceed £SOO, a.i we had all churns, separators, cream vaU, eta., and all that we wanted extra was concrete, and ateol lined tankii, and slnitcs for eight branch factories. Mr Hughes and others opposed me on the plea of expense, and it being an experiment, but they were defeated and the plant ordered. A few weeks after our annual meeting took plate and screral fresh directors were elected. Mr Hughes' first action was to move notice of motion to rescind our former resolution to separate whey, and so hang the making of our plant up for the time being. As part of the plant was completed, Mr Hughes' reason was that by

separating the whey we were robbing the calves and pigs. In due course, Mr Hughes' motion was again defeated,, nfter my explaining to Mr Hughes that we were going to give him Is lb. for nil butter-fat from wliey, p-r.il rf he wanted to feed his pigs on butter he could repurchase same, re-mult, and re-mix in whey, when he would get his correct proportion of fat in the whey. Although Mr Hughes appears a sincere man and has much apparent sympathy for poor piggy, he did not ever allow poor piggy to even smell the whey butter obtained. Now, Mr Hughes' notice of motion hung up the matter of getting our plant for nearly a month, ao in the meantime we decided to save our suppliers £7 10s daily on our main factory, or £3O daily on all our branches, by running the whey over the concrete drains on the lloor, and then separating from new concrete tanks, and I might here add that our main factory had just been corn-

pitted and the floors were as smooth and clean as marble. However, to our surprise, we received a letter from Mr Cuddie, of the Government Department, stopping us making whey butter until we had steel lined ahutes and tanks, which would have been in but for Mr Hughes' notico of motion. At our next annual meeting, I told my suppliers that in my opinion one of my directors had brought the Department down on us and we. had lost several hundred pounds by this action. Mr Hughes evidently thinking that I bad obtained my information from Mr Cuddie, stood up and admitted that ho had written the department on the matter. Needlesa to say when Mr Hughes stood as a director, the suppliers rejected him in such a decisive manner that he saw his services were not again required, and he did not again offer himsolf as a director for Kaupokonui. After wo

started to make whey butter Mr Hughes was continually condemning whey butter and the quality at directors' meethut we had that day received returns from London showing our wh6y butter had brought 135 a, and on the secretary turning up the High Commissioner s cabled price for best New Zealand butter of same date we found this who waa 135 a, so Mr Hushes was si enced, for a time, at least. Readers will be pleased to learn that our plant did not cost us £SOO, and for the last 1 of £4500 or over !>OO per cent, which < Hughes will admit, is fair interest whJIT% ,nvcßted ' or ' in other S S £ T ans T 1 id p er butter ■ extra or ft! 21 '"PPl"". 16a 8d per cow ' °tvin« 20n?h k P « a T CXtra on a cow M\mg 2001b. butter-fat. Mr Hufrhes chums that the Massey party occudt tation rUa Tf r tV be " C \ < i S hy mi9re presen qui S" Mrl) t IB b C requalify,—l am e ?J!f 8 UM oertainl^ . W. D.' POWDRELL, Chairman, Kaupokonui Dairy Co.