LONDON LETTER LOW BUTTER PRICE MAY BENEFIT N.Z.

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28183, 23 January 1957, Page 10

LONDON LETTER LOW BUTTER PRICE MAY BENEFIT N.Z.

[From PETER FABIAN. London Correspondent of "The Press")

London, January 11.—By stepping up the advertising campaign for New Zealand butter in Britain. now that prices under free marketing are at “rock bottom, the New Zealand Dairy Products Marketing Commission may reap a long-term benefit. Many British housewives, mainly in the Midlands and North of England, follow the practice of their mothers and grandmothers and buy Danish butter. If they can be induced by the present low price to break this habit, sample the New Zealand product, and acquire a taste for it, then they may become regular purchasers of New Zealand butter in the future. Big display advertisements which appeared in the main Midlands and North of England provincial newspapers last week boldly proclaimed that New Zealand butter was “cheaper now than for years.” At the same time, an effort was made to overcome a prejudice against New Zealand butter because of its yellow colour in comparison with the whiter Danish varieties. The advertisements therefore proclaimed: “New Zealand butter is so good because it is made from the cream of milk from fine dairy herds able to graze in rich, green pastures the whole year round—they are never stall fed. This is also the reason for that rich, natural golden colour—the colour of butter at its very best.” Although New Zealand is making a considerable loss on the sale of butter at the present level of 260 s 'per cwt., this may not be such a bitter pill for the New Zealand producer in the long run if this low price, allied with a vigorous advertising campaign, results in butter going to the larders of homes which have never seen the produce before. A total of £360,000 has been allocated by the New Zealand Dairy Products Marketing Commission for advertising this year, of which £236,000 will go into direct advertising in Britain. Of this total, advertising in the national and provincial press will absorb £57,000; television advertising, £50,000; the women’s press, £38,000; outdoor posters, £30,000; display material, £25,000; exhibitions and demonstrations, £20,000; miscellaneous, £13,000; and the trade press. £3OOO. Besides published advertisements, the advertising includes the provision of display material, such as dummy butter, showcards, and stickers; free plastic cheese storage bags upon which are printed a green Nev/ Zealand fern and the words, “Keep New Zealand Cheddar in this bag,’’ together with storage instructions; and neon signs in Surrey, Middlesex, Yorkshire, Lancashire, West Lothian, Oxford, Dorset, and Hampshire. Surplus Girls

Britain, unlike New Zealand, has a surplus of marriageable spinsters. The New, Zealand problem, strikingly brought to notice by Dr. O. C. Mazengarb a short time ago, was a surplus of 30.000 to 40,000 men; but while the general tables of the 1951 census for Britain and Wales, which have just been published, do not clearly define the ratios in the most marriageable age group specified by the Wellington Queen’s Counsel, they show that women outnumbered men in the ratio of 1082 to 1000. Nevertheless they show that the margin has been narrowing since the 1921 census when the surplus of women was at a peak. The 1951 census revealed that more people in the 35 to 39 age group were divorced than any other; that on census day four women aged 30 to 34 had husbands aged over 100; that three 16-year-old girls had been divorced, seven were widows and 657 were married: and that more than 500.000 out of the total population of 43.757,888 were in hospitals—--216,476 being in mental institutions. It also shows that Paddington, with 92J people to each acre, was the most crowded part of Britain. Whistling Bird A cocktail named Wallace, one of 50 talking birds in the thirteenth National Exhibition of Cage Birds and Aquaria at Olympia, has been arousing much interest through his ability to recognise an attractive girl. If an attractive young woman passes his cage he wolf-whistles, calls “Hello Darling,” and makes loud kissing noises. If the subject of his attention takes notice all is well; otherwise he is likely to swear mildly at her. But, according to his owner, he swears only in Spanish. Diamonds “Fingerprinted”

A service for “fingerprinting” diamond jewellery, so that it can be identified easily in case of loss or theft, is now being provided in London’s Hatton Garden. Photographs taken under ultraviolet light play an important part in the scheme, for they reveal the different degrees of fluorescence emitted by the diamonds. They are particularly useful for identifying articles set with a large number of small stones, for the pattern of fluorescence revealed by the photograph provides a unique form of identification for the piece of jewellery. “Rock ‘n’ Roll” Mother The teen-age people of Britain are not the only ones learning the latest dance craze—“rock ‘n’ roll.” At the Knightsbridge school of Miss Vacani, who teaches Prince Charles and Princess Anne to dance, there is a class of 20 women —mostly mothers of pupils at the school—learning the lively dance. Among them is the 30-year-old wife of the Conservative member of Parliament for South Sunderland, Mrs Paul Williams, whose seven-year-old daughter is also learning it. Miss Vacani declares that “rock *n’ roll” is attracting pupils of every age and says that during the school holidays boys from Eton, Harrow, and Downside do it in her dancing classes. Library Link

An otherwise unknown seafarer, Simon Hatley, who unwittingly was present at the genesis of two notable literary works, is the subject of a feature. “I Shot the Albatross,” which is to be broadcast in the 8.8.C.’s Third Programme on January 21 During a voyage to the South Seas in 1719 Hatley shot an albatross. Wordsworth happened to read of it shortly before he took the famous walk, with Coleridge and Dorothy Wordsworth, from which emerged “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” On an earlier voyage Hatley had been present at the rescue from Juan Fernandez Island of Alexander

Selkirk, upon whose experiences Daniel Defoe based the “Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.” Women’s Hats

Women’s hats, long the butt of a husband’s jokes and scorn, ar e this spring likely to come again under male ridicule and invective According to reports, hat designers. now busy with their spring creations, are making hats “higher, wider, and wilder.” Some of the styles casually add another six inches to a woman’s height and almost all of them give the women the illusion of bigger heads. A Knightsbridge designer Mr Edward Harvane, who showed his spring collection this week said the new hats were based on the “balloon theme.” One of his styles appeared like the crumpled dome of a mosque. This domelike hat rose high and broad from a band that sat squarely on the forehead. They are made in felt and straw —one in a lacy straw so that the top of the wearer’s hair can be seen about a third of the way up the hat. Besides being broader and higher, hats this spring will have more veiling. Gas Lamps A move by the Richmond Corporation to replace its nineteenthcentury gas lamps in the street around Kew Green with modem concrete pillars supporting fluorescent lighting, is being fought by the residents of the district. The old cast-iron gas lamps are over 100 years old and petitions are being signed by the residents in support of their protest. According to one of the leading critics of the “ugly” concrete poles. Mrs J. Grimond, wife of the Liberal leader in the House of Commons, all the houses around Kew Green are scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Act and the residents are not allowed to alter a single feature of their houses. The gas lamps, she says, harmonise with the eighteenth-century atmosphere. Peace Names According to Bromley Abbott, a columnist of the “Sunday Dispatch,” a novel form of New Year greeting has been received in Britain from New Zealand. The sender wrote inside a printed card that his wish for Britain in 1957 could be expressed best by the initial letters of the most prominent members of the Royal Family—Philip. Elizabeth, Anne, Charles, Elizabeth (the Queen Mother). Nostalgic Note

A short item in the “Daily Express” this week dealt with the seventy-fifth anniversary next month of the first shipment of frozen lamb to Britain. A nostalgic reminder for the British housewife was added in the form of a footnote. It said that the first Canterbury lamb was sold in English shops at 6d per lb as against the current price of about 3s.