NEW ZEALAND CHEESE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 7, 9 January 1930, Page 12

NEW ZEALAND CHEESE.

"QUALITY GONE BACK."

DANGEROUS POLICY OF DRIFT

MR. J. B. MacEWAN'S WARNING.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Wednesday.

Mr. J. B. MacEwan, who returned from a trip through Great Britain, America and the Continent last week, is more than ever before impressed by the vital importance of New Zealand girding up its loins, in a sustained effort to ensure its dairy products ranking at least equal to those of its rivals in the world's markets.

"Tlie first essential," lie said in the course of a brief review of the situation to-day, "is to study more closely and more presistently than has been the case in the past, the tastes of British consumers and the interests of retailers. In offering our products to consumers through the medium of retailers, it must be recognised that they will pay good prices only for commodities-'that meet with their approval. Imperial sentiment is in every way desirable, but it cannot be expected to cover defects in Imperial

products, nor' does it. Whatever the source of supply, it is quality that ultimately determines its value on the open market. Competition Increasing. "While the general quality of our butter on tre Home market, as far as I could ascertain by inquiry and personal inspection, is satisfactory," Mr. MacEwan went on, "it is obvious that competition is rapidly increasing both in quantity and in quality. It is the best.made and the best marketed article that is going to survive and, this being the case, it behoves producers at all stages to strive toward this end. "Cheese, in this respect, presents an even graver problem than does butter. While we have increased our exports of cheese during the last few years enormously, we have not succeeded in even maintaining the quality; of former years. Frankly, the quality has gone back, and the position has become a grave one not only for producers, but also for the community at large. Some effective steps should be taken at once to avert the catastrophe which will inevitably overtake a large section of the dairy farmers if the position is allowed simply to drift. 1 Remedial Steps Proposed. "I consider the position so grave," Mr. MacEwan emphasised, "that I should like to see a meeting, of representatives of the Dairy Board, the Butter and Cheese Makers' Association, the Exporters' Association, and the State Dairy Service, with the object of discussing the position, and finding a remedy for

the existing grave state of affairs. Personally, I would strongly recommend the immediate recall of Mr. Ross from Lon-

don to assist the dairy service in its work. Mr. Ross has an intimate knowledge of the needs of the British distributors, retailers, and consumers, and no one is better equipped than he is to explain and demonstrate to factory directors and managers what is wanted from them.

"I also should like to see Mr. H. E. Davies, the Dairy Board's London manager, visiting the Dominion at the earliest convenient moment. He could personally explain to those concerned the general position of our products upon the British markets, and the prospects before them. Three years' service in London has made.him a very competent master of that end of the business."

Mr. MacEwan touched upon several other problems of urgent consequence to the dairy industry, the burden of his appeal being that those in aiithority should give immediate attention to the threatening conditions that had arisen.