Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY JUNE 1, 1916. DAIRYING AND THE WAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8464, 1 June 1916, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY JUNE 1, 1916. DAIRYING AND THE WAR.

A short paragraph in today's issue of the '-Guardian" announces that a dairy factory in. the Wellington district has been advised that a shipment of its cheese has realized. the record price of 115s per cwt. on the London market. That simple statement is more illuminating- as evidence di the effect of the war upon our primary products than columns of statistics, and it proves in a practical manner that there is an inexhaustible market at Home for products of first quality. Acre for acre, the returns from dairying exceed those of any other agricultural or pastoral industry, and even when the higher price of good dairying land is taken into consideration the profits are greater, though the labour in producing a,pound of: cheese is more . exacting than that involved in growing wheat or mutton of a similar value. The part that the dairying industry in New Zealand has.played in supplying the needs of the British and French troops, as well as the British civil population, is strikingly shown in the annual report of ;: the National Dairy Association, for the year ended March 31. Taking the population as 1,000,000, and,,thp value of the exports of butter "and cheese at J5,79&,000< (as; they were), the report'shows that the wealth sent out of the country in the form, of those products amounted to over £5 17s 6d per head for every man;, woman, and child in the Dominion. , The remarkably high prices for butter and cheese are accounted for as follows:—Germany having been a buyer of large quantities of Danish, the embargo placed on French butter, the diminished suppies-^from Siberia owing to transport difficulties, and the decline in exports from the Commonwealth as a result of drought, were all contributing factors in creating an abnormal market. When it is considered that, the total quantity imported to tho United Kingdom for the 12 months ending April 30, 1916, is 43,000 tons less than, for the corresponding period of last year,, butter values are understandable; whilst during the past three years butter has advanced in value 45 per cent., cheese 80 per cent., and a solution ; of this problem presents an entirely opposite set of conditions. The report refers to the requisitioning by the Government of a certain portion of the cheese produced in the Dominion at a fixed price of 7^d per pound. "The important point,of this compulsory sale.,..vis (the report continues) that cheese having advanced in value as between September 9 (when it was decided at the Hawera Conference to sell at 7d) and October 31, the limit of 7£d was given, when, considering the power vested in the National Government, it might have taken the cheese at tho original price of 7d fixed in ..September, or at any value between that so fixed and the limit given/ In referring to the quality of the butter and cheese produced, the report states that "the quality of the butter exported has hardly reached the.same standard as previous years." As for the cheese, "there has been, during the past season, no general improvement in quality as compared with previous years." An interesting feature of the report is that relating to the changed conditions regarding the markets for cheese and butter. In the statistical tables it is shown that the exports to Canada for 1915-16 shrunk to 8115 boxes of butter, that Sain Francisco, which took 27,674 boxes in 1013-14 and 725 I boxes only in i\u\ following year, took none in thel year under re-

view; and that South Africa, a former good customer, took only 200 boxes. Australia, however, was a big- buyer in.the 1915-10 season, when 52,599 boxes were

sent to that market; but tliis ! trade was exceptional, and is not likely to recur if seasons there are normal- Of the cheese exports, 95 per cent, went to Great Britain. Of course, the climatic conditions in the chief dairying centres were exceptionally favourable last season, and this accounts for tlje record exports. This fact, and the certainty of a good market at high prices, may account, also, for the indifferent quality of some of the shipments; so that out of good a certain amount of evil has come. The achievement of tlie Kokotau factory should act as a spur to other factories to be satisfied with nothing but the very best, for.it must be remembered that -the .present boom will not last beyond the period of the war, and that a reputation for excellencx> established now will outlive that period.