SAFEGUARDING SUPPLIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1922, Page 7

SAFEGUARDING SUPPLIES.

A DAIRY FACTORY PROBLEM. THE QUESTION OF OVER RUN.(From Our Special Reporter.) Palmerston N., June 21. The necessity for introducing some amendment in the Dairying Industry Act, with a view to providing for stricter safeguards in the matter of testing and weighing milk and cream received at factories, as well as the Government inspection of butter-fat received, and also of the amount of cheese or butter manufactured, so as to allay the feeling over the much-discussed question of over-run, has exercised the minds of connected with the industry for some time past. At the last meeting of the National Dairy Association it was suggested that something on the lines of the Canadian Cream and Milk Testing Act. should be introduced into the Dominion. At Tuesday’s meeting of the National Dairy Association a draft of a proposed Act on those lines was submitted by the Dairy Department.

Mr. Singleton, in explaining the position, said .that an amending Act was necessary if the suggestions regarding testing were to be given effect to. The Dairy Division had had in mind the introduction of some necessary legislation, but he did not think intended to go as far as the present proposals. He strongly, favored the proposal that all the necessary glassware used in testing should be officially tested and marked, and that cream samples should be weighed into a test bottle. The bulk of the other suggestions were already being carried out by most factories. It was recognised that unfair competition was going on in New Zealand between various cooperative factories and between co-opera-tive and proprietary factories,. Over-runs were being obtained which could not be justified by the makers, and teould only he obtained by dishonest reading of the cream fiiid' milk' tests. He could assure them that there was nothing in the Act against the interests of proprietary and co-operative concerns that were trying to do honest work. He knew of some abnormal overruns made on paper. If a manager incorporated the maximum amount of moisture into his butter, and also the salt, and had no factory losses of butter-fat, he might get 25- per cent, over-run on accurate testing. They all knew that it was impossible to manufacture without slight losses of fat in the factory, and therefore it is impossible, with accurate and honest methods, to reach 25 per cent, over-run. Despite this, over-runs of 25 per cent, and 30 per cent, had been reached, and those factories, it was felt, should come out. and say what Over-run they were making. Mr. J. R. Corrigan (Hawera) moved: "That the meeting affirms the principle of the Act and approves of the necessary legislation being introduced to give effect to it.” He said it would put all dairy companies on the same footing, and all would work on the same basis. Mr. Kingston (Bay of Islands) seconded. Mr. Ranford (Stratford) asked for an explanation as to why the over-run for home separated cream was greater than from factory separated cream. Mr. Marx (Mangatoki) said that there was a great deal of misunderstanding regarding over-run. The average manager held that if lOOlbs of fat produced 1191bs of butter, the over-run was 19 per cent. Should not the butter be analysed and the over-run be computed on the amount that was not butter-fat in lOOlbs of butter, he asked. Replying to Mr. Nathan, the chairman said that the present Act would enable proceedings to be taken against the supplier that skimmed his milk. The motion was carried.