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from Hawke's Bay and Taranaki to Wellington by rail, and yet it should be necessary to crate cheese to transfer from Waikato to Auckland. Again, cheese is often shipped from areas such as Dunedin and Christchurch to North Island ports where cheese of equal quality is manufactured and is in adequate supply. This reflects a useless cost of transport by sea at a time when we are unable to get shipping space for necessary goods. These aspects, among others, are receiving consideration. Tinned cheddar cheese is again being supplied on ration for those who desire a cheese of greater maturity and is finding a consistent demand. Considerable quantities of tinned processed cheese are also being supplied to the market, and these are used almost exclusively for food parcels for Britain. The consumption of cheese has increased slightly as compared with the previous year, accounted for mainly by some extra processed cheese and larger quantities drawn for ship's stores, which, although charged at the higher price than local cheese, is drawn through local channels. The Division desires to express its appreciation of the assistance received from other Government Departments, particularly the Food Controller, with whom it has had considerable contact, and also from the units of the cheese industry itself, where the secretaries and managers have given whole-hearted co-operation. The monthly drawings from factory of cheese are set out hereunder and include quantities carried over in merchants' stores. Also included is a quantity of 268,000 lb. exported as matured cheese from merchants' stocks originally held for local sale : lb. 1946—October .. .. .. 986,028 November .. .. .. 971,808 December .. .. .. 888,026 1947—January .. .. .. 928,662 February .. .. .. 742,494 March .. .. .. 731,441 April .. .. .. 827,144 May .. .. .. 935,821 June .. .. .. 1,436,369 July .. .. .. 743,207 August .. .. .. 524,352 September .. .. .. 826,084 10,541,436 Bobby Calf Pool Operations This section has once again experienced a year of further progress in the marketing of bobby calves, and while the number of pools operating under the regulations are less in number, the number of calves handled by pools has increased considerably. The decrease in the number of pools operating is accounted for by a large amalgamation of small pools in the Hamilton district, which was carried out at the request of the various authorities in that area. One new pool was gazetted, while a number of additional areas were added to already existing pools. Where it is at all possible, the latter is carried out, as the operational costs of small pool areas in many cases are very high, but if attached to a larger pool these costs are reduced to a minimum. The co-operation received from the various pool authorities was very gratifying indeed, and for the first time an officer of the Division was requested to attend pool annual meetings in many districts. This has a twofold effect—the producer is kept in closer touch with administration generally, and the Division is able to keep abreast with the problems of the pools.

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