H.—3oa.

Table showing Local Market Turnover of Butter for the Year ended 31st March, 1940.

CH.lii.bjfe.Ej. During the year some further consideration has been given to the possibility of assisting cheeseproducers with regard to their local market activities. There are, however, serious difficulties to be overcome, specially with regard to the grading of cheese for local sale, which present a situation requiring a great deal of care and attention. The Division is anxious not to throw on to factory executives any unnecessary work or to institute systems which will entail complicated procedures or heavy expenditure. In addition, it is not desirable to interfere with the factories' freedom of action in catering for local requirements unless such action is detrimental to the producers as a whole. To begin with, butter is most satisfactory when fresh from the churn, and the grading of any line can be checked by comparison with export quantities provided from the same cream and manufactured on the same day. Cheese, on the other hand, needs to be kept on the shelves for a period, and as the vats in which the cheese is made hold only a portion of the milk received there may be a serious variation between any two parcels made on the same day. Cheesemaking therefore lends itself more to selection of the original milk than butter-manufacture. Apart from the employment of a large staff of Inspector-Graders whose employment would not be justified unless the consumption of cheese could be very materially increased or special factories could be selected for the manufacture of local requirements, there would appear to be no method of overcoming this grading difficulty. Again, consumers' preferences in the matter of flavour and maturity vary with both individuals and locality, and these matters present a difficulty in arriving at what could be considered to be a standard of quality and flavour for general use. Nevertheless, it is realized that cheese consumption is unsatisfactorily low and that the reasons for this state of affairs must be discovered and receive attention. The divisional officers are therefore under instructions to further explore the manufacture and marketing of cheese within New Zealand, and to endeavour to evolve a workable scheme for the encouragement of consumption and the provision of a standard type of cheese which will assist in this direction. Local sales of cheese for the year 1939-40 are as follows :—

Table showing Quantities of Cheese consumed locally in the various Marketing Districts for the Years ended 31st March, 1939, and 31st March, 1940.

5

Creamery. Whey. Total. [ 1939. llis. lbs. lbs. April .. .. .. .. 4,860,373 131,412 4,991,785 May .. .. .. .. 5,226,055 135,940 5,361,995 June .. .. .. .. 5,039,687 95,655 5,135,342 July .. .. .. .. 5,231,814 68,237 5,300,051 August .. .. .. .. 5,060,686 83,512 5,144,198 September .. .. .. .. 4,882,507 106,158 4,988,665 October .. .. .. .. 5,041,692 136,386 5,178,078 November .. .. .. .. 5,043,359 135,826 5,179,185 December .. .. .. .. 5,180,478 117,968 5,298,446 1940. January .. .. .. .. 4,831,525 110,168 4,941,693 February .. .. .. .. 5,148,219 117,519 5,265,738 March .. .. .. .. 5,229,835 122,790 5,352,625 Totals .. .. .. 60,776,230 1,361,571 62,137,801

Marketing District. 1938-39. 1939-40. lbs. lbs. Auckland .. .. .. .. .. .. 2,055,725 2,184,687 Taranaki .. .. .. .. .. .. 261,844 246,415 Wellington.. .. .. .. .. .. 2,344,746 2,794,572 Marlborough-North Canterbury .. .. .. 644,346 535,196 South Canterbury .. .. .. .. .. 673,638 748^158 Otago-Southland .. .. .. .. .. 1,208,845 1,400,882 Totals 7,189,144 7,909,910