The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2358, 20 August 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1887.

Equal and exact justice to all men, U1 whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

A change of front has been necessitated in the dairying industry in Waikato, owing to the declining markets and unrenumerative prices realised by our cheese factories. For cheese there is little or no sale at home or abroad. If our local factories turn to the production of butter, instead of cheese, the same difficulty of import duties meets them in Australia, and they have in summer to contend at home with a climate which leaves their butter, whether made up for the Auckland or a foreign market, anything but the excellent article it is before it is sent out from the factory. At this juncture, and when our local companies are hard pushed to carry on operations against these and other adverse circumstances, the oiler of the Auckland Freezing Company, to erect creameries in tl:« Waikato, purchasing the milk from the settlers at certain fixed prices, is most opportune, and will, we trust, lead to satisfactory arrangements being made between this company and our local companies, and with settlers in districts where no factories at present exist, for the establishment of creameries. Dairying must always continue to form an important feature in Waikato farming, and especially when holdings are of moderate size. Milk will pay a profit where beef is raised at a loss. As far as we can understand the proposal of the Freezing Company is to form a central depbt in Waikato, where they will erect a freezing plant and provide cool chambers for making and storing the butter. Outside of this depot, in districts capable of producing a certain guaranteed daily supply of milk, they will establish creameries, sending the nvam by rail to the central depot, the skim milk Icing returned to the milk suppliers. The fanner will thus become a supplier of milk only. If the price be less than lias been heretofore given hy the local factories, he will, on the other hand, not, he required to become a shareholder in cite concern, in order to

become eligible as a milk supplier. If this proposal is carried out it will prove a boon to the farmer, and give dairying in Waikato an impetus, for it will ensure the milk producer a sure and certain price for his milk, let the markets fluctuate as they may.

But to be :i success botli to the farmer uml the Freezing Company, those arrangements must bo framed fairly in the interests of either party. The company has the means and the appliances to carry out a largo and profitable business with its wholesale butter depot at the freezing works at tho railway wharf in Auckland, and with cool chambers in Waikato. Butter kept at a right temperature from tho very first will have the eomm md of tho Auckland retail market, and prove a valuable export. Despite - ‘-ho,iluty, in every specially dry season, and more or less in every summer, there is a good market in Australia and especially in Queensland. Two years ago it was not a question of producing butter, but of keeping the cattle alive through tho dry season in New South Wales and Queensland, and all dairy produce ruled at high rates. These are the seasons and markets when the Auckland Freezing Company would reap a grand harvest, sending the butter from their own cool chambers to similar ones in Australian ports, whence their agents would distribute to the local markets there as required. Such an arrangement should supply a market for all surplus dairy produce from this part of tho colony. Two things, however, are needed. The settlers must lay themselves out to keep up a regular and sufficient supply of genuine milk all the year round, and the company, on the other hand, in its anxiety for a good profit, must not squeeze the dairymen too tightly. If the latter get such a price for their milk as, if churned at home, would have given them, say, an average of 9d per lb for the butter, dairying will be carried on expensively and at a profit, and a largesum of money he annually introduced into Waikato, and put into circulation amongst us. And such a price should pay the company. If they desire to secure the material for creating a large local and colonial trade, they must not grind down the price to less than will pay the farmer. Indeed, if they do they will spoil their chance, and invite opposition in a business, which by a judicious liberality they may keep in thenown hands, for with a first-class article they can rule the Auckland market, and the dry seasons will rule Australian prices for them. If they take a wise course now, they may enjoy an uninterrupted monopoly, which will work well alike for themselves and tho producer. The Auckland grocers have made butter, what is known in the trade as a “ leading ” line, studying how to keep the price down without regard to the interest of the producer, or the slightest care whether he produced his butter at a loss or a profit. Dairying has languished under this system, which has taken the heart out of the dairymen, and tended to the production of an inferior article suited to the inferior price. The Freezing Company should, however, adopt a more enlightened policy. The hulk of its shareholders are interested in laud, and should seek to raise rather than to depress its profits. If the company enters on this matter in a fair and business-like spirit, it will benefit both itself and us, and in building up a lucrative business for itself assist the country settlers out of tho quagmire in which they are floundering, by finding for them a remunerative market for an important article of produce. The Auckland Freezing Company in framing present arrangements has, of course, its own business profit in view. So, too, have the local cheese factory companies and the Waikato milk suppliers generally. Either party will, however, only he conforming to the true essence of business principles if, in dealing with the other, it is prepared to give and take, and to arrange on such a basis as shall he mutually fair and profitable. If this is not done, any arrangement will only break down, sooner Dilator, to the loss of both.