BUTTER AND CHEESE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20523, 16 April 1932, Page 20

BUTTER AND CHEESE.

NEW ZEALAND SHIPMENTS. EMPIRE PREFERENCE CONDITIONS. (from our own correspondent.) LONDON, March 3. The Pakeha was the firßt ship to arrive from New Zealand with a cargo of dairy produce, which will be sold under the new Empire Preference conditions. She is discharging butter and cheese valued at £200,000. The first lots of butter and cheese~£o be towed up the Thames in barges from the docks yesterday were some brought by the Hertford, which arrived just one hour-after the closing of the Long Koorn at the Customs House on February 29th the eve of Britain's new fiscal system coming into force. Of her cargo, some 11,000 boxes of butter and 7000 crates of cheese are being landed at the Port of London. « The barges bore signs in large letters —"New Zealand Butter—New Zealand Cheese; 'Empire Preference is London's Preference'; London's First Empire Preference Cargo." When some of the boxes were landed on Hay's Wharf the battery of cameras became busy, the High Commissioner being taken looking across to the barges, examining the contents of the first case opened, and then preparing to sample the butter. On behalf of the proprietors of Hay's Wharf, Admiral Sir A. Smith extended a hearty welcome to Sir Thomas Wilford on the occasion of the arrival of the first consignment of New Zealand dairy produce under the new Act of Parliament concerning tariffs that had been passed. The High Commissioner for New Zealand was the first gentleman that the proprietors had had the honour of welcoming in the their new building. Hay's Wharf had been in existence for many years, the present proprietors had been there since 1862, and they had been struggling on with very inadequate premises. He hoped that their friends, like those from New Zealand, would benefit from the very much improved accommodation. trices To-day and Three Years Ago. Sir Thomas Wilford congratulated the proprietors on their splendid' new headquarters which had unquestionably been built from the utilitarian point of view—another sign of the progress which the great company had been making. The first cargo which he welcomed under the new Imperial Preference conditions was brought by the New Zealand Shipping Company's Hertford; he welcomed also the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's Pakeha and Tairoa. The Tairoa had already cleared London and had gone on to the Western Ports (Avonmouth, Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow). He believed theso were the first ships of Empire to have arrived and discharged cargo of any kind since Empire Preference came into effect. The Dominions were much interested in the fact that Preference had come into force, and that it was preferential. The three vessels already arrived carried produce of the value, at to-day's prices, of £700,000. Three years ago theso same cargoes would have been worth £1,200,000 but in the interval New Zealand dairy exports to Great Britain had enormously increased, and the prices were as cheap to the British public as they were in pre-war days. Despite low<jr prices, the quality was-of the very best. New Zealand farmers had been putting forth the most strenuous efforts to meet the Mother Country's increased requirements, and every effort was being made to meet the needs of the market so that British people did not require to buy foreign butter. Indeed, if foreign supplies were excluded, the farmers New Zealand and Aub* tralia would be able to fulfil all requirements by increasing their output, and so would be in a position to meet more than the normal requirements of this country. He belioved that the British people ought to realise that cheap food was due to the efforts of the Empire dairy farmers who have been increasing their production for the benefit of the Home market. Jf the British people would take more Dominions' produce, the overseas Dominions would be able to buy more British manufactured food,_ so ensuring more wotk for the British working man. Why did Staffordshire buy so much DaniJh butter, when the Dominions bought Staffordshire pottery? Apart from butter and cheese, statistics to-day showed that the _ British Dominions, plus the United Kingdom, could supply to the Home Country all the mutton and lamb that they required; there was no reason to go outside for supplies of mutton and lamb. Shortly the Dominions would be in the same position in regard to dairy produce. The splendid way in which the produce was packed and carried, and its high quality should be sufficient evidence for the consumer that it was well to encourage the development of Empire trade. He adjured the Britisher to bear ever in mind the New Zealand slogan— the money in the family." Sir William Wayland, M.P., mentioned that one purpose of the Empire Dairy Council, which was inaugurated about a year ago, was to co-ordinate the various dairying industries throughout the whole of the Empire, and he believed their efforts were meeting with every success. As the High Commissioner for New Zealand had remarked, all the mutton and lamb required by the Mother Country could easily be supplied from Empire sources.

It was a happy thing to know that at last this country had broken down tho idol of Free Trade, which she had been worshipping for the last 70 or 80 years. Presently, the new influence will make itself felt, with returning confidence, and the people will live in a happy land where one man will be able to say to another, "How's business" And tho answer will be "jolly goodl" It was owing to the wonderful and magnificent efforts of the New Zoalaud and Australian producers that they had got ahead of the foreign exporter. In a year or two, he augured, there would be a still higher duty than the present 10 per cent, placed on foreign butter, and he was confident that New Zealand would be able to increase her output, her population, and her purchases from the Old Country. OVERSEAS WOOL MARKET. The representative of the Australian Wool Growers' Council, Mr M. P. Devereux, reports: Kecent fluctuations in foreign exchange values are creating a feeling of caution. There is an absence of speculation, and no quotable change in prices. At Bradford merino crossbred tops are doing very little new business, but the output is still well taken up with merino yarn. Prices show a tendency to sag, but there is no quotable change. There is very little enquiry for crossbred yarns, and prices are unchanged. Arising from improved political position, reports from Germany are of a more hopeful character, but the complexity of the economic situation causes caution to be observed. Sales of tops continue on a fairly large scale there, but imports of tops from Great Britain have been considerable. A slight improvement in activity Lv reported from France, but in Belgium, owing to export difficulties, trade is particularly quiet. Many mills are running short time. Futures markets at Antwerp and Koubaix are quiet, with variations in quotations depending on exchange flue tuations. To satisfy niv curiosity I tested the very first milk' of a Jersey cow whose average test was 5.5 per cent., and then testedT the very last strippings, writes a contributor to the Jersey Bulletin (U.S.A.). I found that the first milk opiitained .8 per cent, fat, while the lasl milk tested 12.4 per cent, fat —15 tUnei more butter-fat in the last drawn milk Stripping is important not only because this milk contains much more butter fat, but also may help to avoid much udder trouble.