FIRE IN ST. LOUIS ARSENAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 10867, 4 June 1918, Page 6

FIRE IN ST. LOUIS ARSENAL.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. ißocd. 11.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, Juno 3.

A fire occurred in an arsenal at Saint Lotus, causing damage estimated at £600,000. An enemy alien has been arretted on a charge of causing the fire.

QUALITY OF BUTTER.

NEED FOR MAINTENANCE.

ADVICE BY DAIRY EXPERT.

' A ptsctssiojj arose at the North Auckland Dairy Conference yesterday upon the quesI tion of cream grading, on a motion which j stood in the name of Mr. \V, Grounds, i Hckianga. A clause in tho agreement I made in 1914 by tho delegates of the fac- | tories as to the cream-grading scale pro- . vided that all cream testing below 35 per cent, of butter-fat should be paid for at a minimum of id per lb below the standard price. Mr. Grounds had given notice at last year's conference to move that the minimum deduction for second-grade cream be raised to Id per lb. He intimated, i however, that he had tabled the motion j mainly to provoke discussion, and, accord--1 ingly, he merely moved it pro forma.

Mr. Cuddie, director of the dairy division of the Department of Agriculture, urged that the main consideration to be kept in view by the dairy industry was the maintenance of quality. During the last season the quality of the product of butter had notably fallen off, particularly in the Auckland Province. It must be admitted that the farmers were working under serious disadvantages, and also that the seasonal conditions had been abnormal. The remedy for the trouble was systematic grading of the cream and proper instruction, either by the Government experts or by instructors appointed by the dairy companies, or by a combination of the two systems. The dairy division of his Department was prepared to put its instructors at the disposal of companies as far as possible. Mr. Cuddie strongly commended the system of cream grading on points that had been adopted by Mr. A. Stirling, manager of the Te Kuiti Dairy Companv. He also suggested that conferences of managers of factories at convenient places in the province would have good results. The difficulties that arose from the use of milking machines having been touched upon as a cause of deterioration in produce. Mr. \\ . Hamilton, Mercury Bav, urged that the difficulty cf cleaning the air-pipes of the machinery was a fruitful cause of the deterioration of butter, and suggested that manufacturers of machines should aim at making the air-pipes as readily cleansabie as the milk-pipe. Eventually the motion was. put and lost. Consideration was given to the following resolution passed at the Hamilton Show Conference on June 6, 1917, which was moved bv Mr. W. Hayward, Maungatapere.—That it be a recommendation to the North and South Dairy Associations that the standard of home-separator cream He put up to 38 per cent., and every supplier bo penalised after a second warning, all cream under the above standard to be classed as second grade. The motion was emphatically negatived on the voices.