21

H.—34a

quadrupled. New Zealand cheese is making its way in the Manchester market; it can now be sold on its merits as "New Zealand," and not merely as a substitute for Canadian. His firm had always sold New Zealand cheese on its own merits. This season's supply had been marked by " weediness " and too much moisture. This is affecting the reputation of the cheese, and causing loss to dealers and dissatisfaction to the public. The cheese becomes too rapidly acid when there is an excess of moisture. If a high quality of New Zealand cheese is maintained his firm would be able to sell it against English cheese, as it comes nearer in description to English cheddar than Canadian does. A partner in another firm of produce-importers said they get some New Zealand butter from Liverpool, but most of it from London. The reason why they do not get direct shipments is that if they buy " c.i.f. Manchester " the documents come quickly and thejr have to meet them and hold the bills of lading till the vessels arrive. They have 6d. extra carriage to pay on butter coming to Manchester. On one occasion it was two months after they got the bills of lading before they were able to handle the butter. London is at the head of the market, arm it is impossible to create a market in Manchester. New Zealand butter has not a great sale witn them; it is mostly Scandinavian. New Zealand ranks as second-class, and yet it brought only Id. per pound less than Danish. When it can be sold at Is. per pound it goes very well. With a better service of steamers they might develop a direct trade. Monthly steamers reaching here in seven weeks' time would go far towards making a market in Manchester. New Zealand cheese goes very well in Manchester, but they would prefer it paler in colour—as white as it can be produced; at any rate the larger proportion of it. should be white, as that suits the taste of the people. They'had made a trial of I. lb. packets of butter received from a New Zealand factory, but the experiment had not proved very successful. Bacon. —A Manchester importer told me that he had just received a trial shipment of New Zealand bacon from the Eltham factory. He could not say as yet how it would turn out, but the pigs appeared to be too small. Another large importer of Danish and Irish bacon was favourably disposed to giving New Zealand bacon a trial if the export were developed. VI. GLASGOW. Population, Trade Possibilities, etc. No more promising field exists for the extension of a direct trade in New Zealand products than is presented by the great maritime and industrial city of Glasgow. The population within the municipal boundaries (over 800,000) places Glasgow in the undisputed position of being the second largest city in the Empire—Manchester being beaten in the contest by the narrow policy that keeps Salford, &c, in the position of separate boroughs. Glasgow is, in addition, in the very heart of the Scottish "Black Country"—in the region of coal-producing, shipbuilding, iron and steel manufactures, and great cotton, sugar, and other industries. Within thirty miles of the city are many large towns, such as Greenock, Paisley, Renfrew, Port Glasgow, and Dumbarton, with their shipbuilding, cotton, sugar, and other industries; Rutherglen, Coatbridge, Airdrie, Motherwell, Hamilton, and Wishaw, with their large populations engaged in coal-mining, iron and steel manufactures; Stirling, Falkirk, Linlithgow, Lanark, and numerous other towns and villages, whose population, added to that of Glasgow, brings up the total to over a million and a half. Most of the people in this area are engaged in fatiguing occupations demanding a generous diet for the preservation of their physical powers; most of them earn good wages and spend them freely ; and they present a body of consumers capable of purchasing large quantities of New Zealand mutton, butter, and cheese, while other of our products, such as timber, grain, hemp, wool, &c., are largely in demand. Nor does the radius of distribution described exhaust the potentialities of Glasgow as a field for imports from New Zealand. As the only Scottish port in direct connection with this country by steamer service, Glasgow is fitted to become a centre of distribution of oup-'products for the whole of Scotland, as well as for Belfast and the north of Ireland, with which it has close commercial relations and every facility of communication. Although Edinburgh and the eastern districts of Scotland are served by steam communication from London —there being regular lines of steamers plying to Leith, Dundee, Aberdeen, &c. — there is no reason why Glasgow, with her direct connection with New Zealand, aided by the enterprise of her merchants, who have branch businesses all over the country, should not in a short time wrest some of the New Zealand trade from London. The chief drawback to an extension of trade between New Zealand and Glasgow lies in the fact that the northern city is the last port of call for the west-coast steamers —the detention at other ports making 'an interval of nine to ten weeks elapse between the shipping of goods at New Zealand and their delivery in Glasgow. The length of the journey does not greatly affect the trade in such articles as frozen meat, grain, hemp, wool, and timber, but it is fatal to the development of a business in dairy-produce. It may be hoped, however, that, with the growth of general traffic, there will come an improvement in the steamer service that will enable large quantities of our more perishable products to be shipped to Glasgow. There has not, so far, been any very marked development of direct trade between New Zealand and that port; but the business done is by no means insignificant, as may be seen from the following table compiled for me by the general traffic superintendent of the Clyde Navigation Trust: —