THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1919, Page 6

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION URGED. Palmerston North, April 30. Important evidence relative to the dairying industry of New Zealand was tendered to the Industries Committee at the House of Representatives at Palmerston North on Tuesday evening by Mr. F. ,T. Nathan, under the auspices of the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Nathan said that he was there that day to stress the necessity for some little encouragement to the dairy companies on the part of the Government in the matter of scientific investigation. He emphasised the apathy on the pai;t of the State, and said that it did not even do as much as the local bodies and send somebody to England for scientific research. The dairy companies had nobody whom they could consult in New Zealand—not even the Agricultural Department. There was nobody with the training sufficient to undertake scientific research. When those interested in the dairying industry wanted to go into research matters they had to go Home. In this connection, he pointed out that the dairy companies did not know how to manufacture the products obtained from crude casein. "We cannot," he remarked, "gather any information on the subject here. I contend that there is nobody here to whom we can look to gain any further knowledge on the subject." ! Continuing, he took the Government to task for not having yet established a dairy school in some centre. The trouble was that, as soon as it was proposed to establish such an institution in any particular place, there was an outburst of parochialism from other districts, who insisted on the school being established in their locality, in preference to the claims of any other district, and the Government had not the backbone to combat all this and go ahead and establish a school in any one district to serve the whole country. A dairy school was seriously wanted for the future welfare of the industry in the Dominion. At present the factory managers had no means of gaining experience relative to the various by-products that had been discovered in recent years. The Government did not seem prepared to pay for anybody to come out to New Zealand and undertake scientific research work in connection with the industry. There were any number of competent men abroad well versed in the subject who would come out here if there was sufficient inducement offering. The matter was of vital interest to the industry, because the quality of the butter in the Dominion was not what it was several years ago. There were probably several causes for this, but it was an absolute truism all the same.