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Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 156, 4 July 1896, Page 3 (Supplement)

ton BuTTEE.--Mr Valdemar Jobansen, C^iitilfor Denmark, sends us the following letter, which baa been trammitted to him *J the Ministry at Copenhagen :—

Fiona, Leonard Road, London, April •»i 1696- To the Editor of the jjWKUSD Evening Stab. Sir, — In »i Auckland Evening Stab of 'DWy 4th, 1896, 1 find an article on Modal v. Foreign Butter,' in which wiih batter ii mentioned in a way which **o confident I can show ia not by any Bunt justified. There is no doubb that if "Huh batter could be driven away '«» the English markets, that would 'Me an exceedingly nice opportunity for. 'iscolonial butter, but thia will hardly be ■ttmpliabed. The Danes are quite pref™ to meet the Australians on the «ttefi»ld( of the English and Scotch «wt markets and to fighb for the favour ". l »fl British consumers, bub let the J™1 * 88 fought in a fair way and 97 spreading damaging and untrue jwft. Tha Danes feel even to some exT'MfWn prido in seeing the quick and fNid dßTelopment of the Australian j*[ indmtry, inasmuch as nob only «»un dairy principles and dairy Jjjfcyi bat also Danish dairymen, "P&e credited direcbly or indirectly with "^laersble share in the honour of that «eiopiaect But, as I said, in the com'lft . ÜBhave a fair fiel J- Ttie writer HIM ■ UND Evening Stab in the IIJ' 6"1 question mentions the reiuitß of | 0 .rw? of 291 samples of butter made "»• English Board of Agriculture. He Kwi°V?uir»' v^bile 79 per cant- of the fonni) f v man an(* Danish shipments were Dro»d » 8 adul<ißrated, the colonial article lt e ™'0b8 butter pure and simple.' If w, jj,( tad anything like correcb re*ieno kkßhiß? whon he wrobe tnis« and Ge'ed»d\ j ai'8 of fcnis eentienca n 0 Pro»hiefa * al i * picture of the war in in . , Molfc«ration has gradually crepb du!t*y Bpoiled tho Danißb dairy in' iloq „!.■ J? »8 to leave the impresBenßiTu i oind of <*• readers thab •Mrctnk "Oa'n'y responsible for these 79 t« J'!1 ? f .^nltarabioM, then, I say, he Sopk," Lglvea ".a a fair field. From 21sb Km% ° 2&tb No?ember, 1895, fche hinoh °? rd of Agriculture had 291 *t cent md > when 7» «n a". "°* 79 t«r«ted ftfWera Prono"Bced to be adulw 79 BamPle«t 46 were '"liih mf Ma German, and eeven were Start nftt■ 1» D reporfc Siven by the tlliott t *he Board of Agriculture, Mr Ht«,7p Sel6cb Committee of the Stthet i»9 mon8 i Bnowa thab alto--•era tit. of Danish buttor uri^ tho y°ar 189S of Wed T• Were Pronounced to be adnltoison'., !?K 3'B per cenli. A com- > quo J T fi«urM wifch tho Btoteh ,i,f™ a Wove shews how misleading "X t». of ""PMted Dani*h Sly «».y ? Bre» a" a matter of fact, aild n°b Pr°VCd to b° ,f ?»ve had occasion to write •"e woll-known pap«r »The Grocer,'

where I said (15th February.last) 'that Danish experts, acquainted with the results of the analyses, have fully concurred in the conclusions drawn from them, viz., thao there is a prima facie case against a very email number of samples, bub that no proofs of adulteration have been given.' English experts have acknowledged that there is no proof. Tha* means simply this, thab ab a certain poinb ib becomes difficult or impossible for an analyst, no matber how clever he may be, to cay of a sample of butter whether ib is pure or not. On this border these seven samples wero found to belong. No actual proof of the presence of foreign fats notdtirived from milk were adduced. This ia tho case as far as Denmark is concerned, but I should like in addition to poinb out that a euspicion of just the same kind as has arisen with regard to Danibh butter is by no means unknown to Australian butter. A sample of undisputed Australian butter bought in Gosport was in January, 1895, before an English Court proved to contain 17 per cenb. of foreign fats, and the correctness of the analysis was nob questioned. Possibly caused by this suspicion of the purity of Australian butter, samples were in the colony of Victoria submitted to tho Agricultural Chemist for analysis. . The Melbourne "Age" for October 24, 1895, reports as follows:—" Mr Pearson states thab there were only two samples which might; be considered doubtful; one would ba passed by the English chemists on the Keicbarb test, bub the other would bo declared adulterated with about 10 pur cenO. of foreign fats. Ib might, nevertheless, be a nabural butter of low quality." Mr Pearson does not seem to have ascertained thab the latter sample was in fact genuine, but his remark, thut a pain pi o which might be a natural genuine butter, may be declared to be adulterated when measured by certain tests, fits exactly tho case of the seven Danish samples. Cuaes of butter of a similar composition have for years been known to occur in many countries, and especially at certain season*, Australia is no exception any more than Denmark. I nm, Sir, your obedienb servant, Harold Faher, F.C.S., Commissioner to the Danish Government Agricultural Depart uxotib.