BUTTER AND WATER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8879, 13 November 1907, Page 4

BUTTER AND WATER.

The Butter Export Bill was passed by the House of Representatives last night. Its one operative clause originally limited the wa'er in butter to sixteen per cent., whether sold in the country or exported. The Agricultural Committee amended the provision in the direction of protecting the consumer abroad, and leaving the local consumer unprotected. The title of the bill possibly warranted this, but the title might have been altered to, say, "Pure Butter Bill," and then the provision could have been made to apply to the sale of butter in New Zealand. In the matter of butter, as in most other exportable commodities, the New Zealander has to pay higher prices than are paid in England for our own manufactures, and have in addition to take what they can get. This formed the subject of a protest from Mr Ell during the debate on the Butter Bill. He remarked tha', in the dominion consumers had to pay up to Is 2d "per lb for butter containing a very large percentage of water. His contention was that the dominioniats ought to be protected as much -as the British or foreign consumer. Mr Hogg also had a word to say on the subject of the protection cf the New Zealander. He pointed out that even with sixteen per cent, of water the consumer paying Is per lb for butter paid 2d out of that for water. This is a rather costly method of taking liquid refreshment. There are, however, difficulties in the way of extracting the water from butter in the process of manufacture, as settlers who make their own butter have not the necessary cooling machinery to enable them to get the water out of the product, and it would be injudicious to hamper the struggling settler ■ more than circumstances absolutely warrant.