BUTTER EXPORTS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1028, 6 April 1894, Page 3

BUTTER EXPORTS.

~0 ■ REPORTS FROM THE LONDON AGENT, j The Agricultural department is in receipt of a .fu-rther report from Mr Lowe, dated London l9th January 1894. Referring to the 8407 packages j of butter,ex Coptic, Mr Lowe says that it arrived in good condition so far as stowage and refrigeration' were concerned, but he regretted that so much inferior butter should come from the. colony. The import of foreign butter ~%ito England during the" last three months of 1892 as compared with the last three of 1893 was 511,295cwtin 1892 as against 490.482 in the. corresponding period of 1593, a decrease of 4 per cent, only ou. account of the summer drought of last year. The New Zealand and Australian butter imported during these two periods of three months was 6166cwt of New Zealand in 1892 and 9457 in 1893, and 17,785cwt of Australian in 1892 and 49,772cwt in 1593, so that there was 1763 tons 18cwtof surplus colonial butter to make up the foreign drought deficiency of 1090 tons. Up to the date of writing, the total increase for the season iri New Zealand butter has been 10,175cwt and in Australian 50,209cwt. Amongst the difficulties New Zealand butter has to overcome before becoming popular in England, Mr Lowe says, is the antipathy, and even hostilit}*-, of British newspaper writers. Even the Standard, in its last weekly market report, stated that a good deal of new butter had been sold at 66s to SOs, and the best at 90s to 104s. This was so damaging a statement that Mr Lowe at once wrote to the Standard challenging it, and showing that 35 per cent, of New Zealand butter had this season sold for over' ll2s, 20 per cent, between 100s and 112s 20 ppr cent, from 90s to 100s, and some as much as 130s; while one importer had not sold an I ounce under 120s. The Standard in the current week corrected its quotations to 112s to 115s for fancy brands, and 102s to 112s for good ordinary, and stated that only when the abutter was quite unfit for the table it realised 66s to SOs. The Ruapehu's cheese was realising 52s to 555, while Canadian Cheddar was 555, and importers declared the New Zealand equally good. Mr Lowe considers that the South African market might easily be captured by New Zealand. Captain Simpson, of the Thermopylae, stated that three weeks before the date of Mr Lowe's letter butter was 2s 6d per lb retail at the Cape The only requisite was cold storage, and inquiries are already being made as to the market on behalf of Auctralia. There is again trouble with importing agents, who, to the detriment of the colony and their colleagues, are selling butter at L 5 4s and L 5 6s which should be L 5 10s. The butter market remained steady in spite ef enormous arrivals. Danish fell 4s during the week. It was expected that a fortnight after the time of writing 100 tons of New Zealand butter would arrive iri one week — the largest quantity on record. There is another report, dated 26th January, in which Mr Lowe says that Victoria is mailing immense strides with the English wholesale dealers owing to the level quality of its butter i ancl the excellent factory system prevailing, while the irregular quality of the New Zealand article, and the large quantity of inferior farmers' butter sent, greatly helped the Victorian boom, to the detriment of this colony. Speculators had bought up inferior farmers' butter in the colony at even 3d and 4d in the pound, expecting a shortage in England owing to the Continential drought, but they are likely to be cautious before repeating the experiment. This would be a good , thing for the colony, as it had resulted in a growing favor for Victorian butter and a coldness on New Zealand on the part of the wholesale buyers — so much so that importers are complaining of the difficulty of disposing of New Zealand secondary quality. One of the best importers stated that the quality of New Zealand butter invoiced to him at 90s was fully 5s less than the value of Victorian invoiced at SOs, and the result was that the New Zea!ffirad realised fully 15s per cwt less than Victorian. Of this season's butter, the bulk of Victorian is factory arid even in quality, while the bulk of New Zealand is very uneven ; and these speculative merchants Mr Lowe considers are doing much damage to the reputation of the New Zealand article. During the week really excellent New Zealand butter was under offer at 106s which was fully worth 110s to 112s. The fact that there would be no arrivals of New Zealand butter between the Aorangi and Rimutaka — a month — would further damage New Zealand to the advantage of Victoria, as owing to the desultory method of shipment buyers could not rely on getting New Zealand regularly for their customers and would have to fall back on the Victorian.' There should be regularity of shipment as a first essential. At the end of the week the Colonial Butter Committee's price' was Ills, though there had been sales at 112s and 116s. Danish was as 118s to 1225. ; 'I never pass that house that I do not see that pretty little woman on the lawn. She must spend most of her time there.' ** Yes,' replied Brown, < she does j she's a grass widow,' . j