AN IMPORTANT INDUSTRY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4379, 27 March 1893, Page 2

AN IMPORTANT INDUSTRY.

OUR EXPORT BUTTER WADE. Although it is a fact acknowledged by butter experts and buyers for.th.a--export market in New Zealand butter is of a more even quality and. far better paoked than it was wont to be some seasons ago, yet in the case of many sellers there is still great room for improvement in both reapers. The trade is one ot such vast importance to settlers of all classes, and is capable of such infinite increase in the near future, that it behoves everyone interested in its expansion—whether it be the dairyman, the buttermaker, the buyer, or the ; shipper—to Bee that none butthe very best quality leaves the port for the . foreign market, Impressed with the ! importance of the subject, a reporter had an interview oi/jrid&y with Mr H.G.Parker,the.ilpgfi&ton representative of Mr Herbert Chester, who ' is one of the largest, if not the largest purchasers of butter for the Home 1 and Australian markets in New Zea» 1 land, and whose opinions, therefore, in ' in connection with the subject of how ! butter should be packed and chipped i are entitled to respect. Mr Parker furnished the reporter with a number , of details and particulars in connec- ... tion with the buttor export business ' , which are not generally known to the i general public, and which there is I sufficient evidence also to show are i not known—or if they are known J ; are wilfully ignored in practice—by A ; many Mr ParkerJß j says that the shipping of but^Hß London commences as eiiriy as , possible in the month of Octobar, and s terminates at tho end of the following ' February. This period is fixed upon • principally with a view to shipments arriving inthe.Thamea at a time when \ the market is comparatively empty oi the butter produce from Ireland, Defr B mark, and the English provinces, II cows, of course, iu that season of the year being dry, or nearly so. This ifl a the opportunity for New Zealand but* t ter to come to the front, and if only 0 the maker is true to himself, both as » t> tlio quality of tho artiolo and tho ;l manner in which it is paoked, and the exporter at the seaboard uses suf- •• ficitnt oaution, and ascertains that a nothiug but a first-class article leaves the warehouse or chilling chamber, ' tho sale of New Zealand butter in England will prove practically illimitt able, Nor, as perhaps most people 1 are aware, is the present foreign out: d put of butter confined to the Home market, for no sooner is the last shipb ment for London put on board in the 0 month of February than orders which, s since Cbrietmas have been pouring '• in from Australia, on account of ' tho scarcity of feed—which has been scorched up by " btiokfielders" and prevailing north winds-have to 1 be fulfilled. It will be seen from this 0 that practically all tho yeaypifad ■, New Zealand may, if she liy® 0 o steady sale for her butter iPCondonT o Sydney, and Adelaide. Victoria, on » account of her more equable olimata ' and better pasture land is not regarded £ as a regular customer of Maoriland, f There are at present several stumbling e blocks in the way of the buyer and 0 exporter of butter which will have to 1 be removed before the prejudices and * suspicions of tho London buttermen on ' the subject of our butter are removed, and until this is effected tho careful t and just maker and packer will suffer . equally with tho unjust, or maybe careless packer. Mr Chester, finding j by experience that square white pino ti cases were far preferable to tho old- . fashioned firkins, tubs, and kegs, haß i during the last two seasons adopted '• the ease system of packing. Wooden cases pack more closely on board ship, '• take up less room, and therefore in tho '• matter of freight are cheaper than £ kegs, whilst they are decidedly more j presentable on the retailer's counter 1 than the unsightly and cumbersome butter-keg. The cases weigh n when full 661bs nett, or rather they g should attain this weight on the scales o of the buyer in Wellington, but either r from shrinkage or from the fact that tho packing has been unskilfully pero formed, the cases are often found upon e inspection not full. In order thatno ' air may penetrato tho butter, whioh 0 s causes deterioration, tho utmost care 0 should bo exercised by tbo dairyman M a or overseer of the butter factory thatflj if every box is properly andlcom'pletelrflfl filled before it is sent down to UOHB s port of departure. The buyer sfIHH a plies the seller not only 'f cases, delivered free at histwj^^H 1 factory, but also with a highly gSSgMj 1 parchment paper, which is a line the oases before filling them, B This paper is both air-proof and waterP proof. On arriving in Wellington each case is weighed immediately, r and should it be found wanting, the 0 deficit is marked on the lid and the 1 maker iB debited with the deficiency. ® The Wairarapa, New Plymouth,.and Napier makers aro all of them, as a rule, very careful in filling their boxes, while their butter is of a remarkably even quality, The cases having been weighed, and next • opened, and tbo tester or taster with his butter iron—a tool similar to a cheese-taster—comes forward and bores a hole right through tho buttor from lid to bottom. If the quality i'b, after tasting, .approved of, the buttor is stacked, and is oreditcd with its value, but sircjpf the verdict be adverse, the butter is rejected, and if at all good is generally sold locally, The utmost pains are adopted by Mr Chester to prevent inferior butter being shipped by him, The samples of butter opened in the presence of the reporter represented consignments from tho following places Nelson, I Marlborough, Featherston, Masterton, the Forty-mile Bush, Taranaki, and Hawkes Bay, the produce from tho four last-named localities being prime. | Nelson .'and Marlborough butler . , growers are steadily improving, and ( as their pasturage is equal lo any, at I any rate in this island, they will, if ( they but exercise sufficient* oaro in i manufacturing and packing, doubtless . prove themselves friendly rivals to ' tho norlhom dairy farmers. Of a | number of samples tested, that from , a factory at Hnwke's Bay, which had been made with a Do Laval machine was announced to be decidedly richest, in.addition to whichitaaHH sented the most equal exceptionally bad sample was omßH| It would not be judicious to menufflVH the district from which it came, and "V it must suffice to say that it was not A made in this province. If the wouldbe seller had determined to do his very best to destroy the export trade in butter, he could not have more successfully carried out his design (ban by sending his consignment. The sample was made up into pound pats, instead of being put into the case in one solid blook, and presented the appearance of having been hastily snat ohed from a grocer's counter, and hurriedly put into the case, while the - odour from the horrid stuff wss 'per- •'"A fcotlyeickening.— Evening Post, 1