BUTTER v. CHEESE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 69, 22 March 1907, Page 8

BUTTER v. CHEESE.

CONTRCWERSY IN THE COUNTRY. MR. J. G. HARKNESS'S OPINIONS. In Taramxki and the Manawatu district there is much discussion about the rival merits of butter and cheese as profit producers. Some weeks ago there were signs that butter would gradually recede in price, and this fear, in conjunction with an improvement in this article, naturally directed attention to the prospects of ventures in cheese. "The question whether to manufacture cheese or butter next season is occupying the thoughts of mostly all factory directors and is at present the great topic of conversation everywhere," writes the Rangitikei Advocate's travelling reporter. "Of course, in most cases it will mean the installation of a cheese plant. Where a factory has no creameries, no doubt a cheese plant will bo useful for all times, as they can then each year decide whether to make cheese or butter, but where they have a few creameries in conjunction .with the main factory there are no donbt difficulties in the way. One .would also bo inclined to think that the price of cheese .will scarcely hold very much longer." Debating this topic' with a Post reporter to-day Mr. J. G. Harkness", secretary of the National Dairy Association, said he thought that the position with, many of tho factories making butter to-day, especially in the Taranaki districts, was that they were considering the advisability of putting in duplicate plants for the simple reason that the prices ruling for cheese, 66s a cwt., was giving the producer a very big advantage in price over the man who was supplying a butter factory. The advantage practically amounted at present to 3d a pound. The whole question depended on what would be the price of cheese next year. Taking the present season and the last as a criterion, the suppliers to cheese factories had had considerably the best of it. Personally, under the circumstances, he would not like to take the responsibility of advising anyone to change from butter to cheese without getting a guarantee from the purchaser that he would take cheese for, say, a couple of years, at a good price. * One difficulty he saw in the way of a factory possessing duplicate plant was that while one -was engaged in making one article, the other must be idle, and there was no manufacturing plant that depreciated so quickly^ as dairying apparatus when not in use. It ■was utterly impossible to conduct the two operations simultaneously. For instance, it was a fatal mistake to make cheese, say, this season in a. room or factory and make butter next season in the same place, for the room would have become affected by the cheese in such a way that the manufacture of butter there would not be advisable. To be done successfully, the dual manufacture must be carried on with separate plant, in separate buildings.. Another difficulty was that a man •who was an expert butter maker was not necessarily an expert cheese maker, and vice-versa. The work could, of course, be done in two separate buildings, with separate staffs, but then came the question of paying these two staffs. This would tend to reduce the amount that the factory could pay to the supplier. He knew of one large factory in Taranaki whero the shareholders were considering the advisability of changing from butter to cheese. That would practically mean an outlay of £10,000 to £12,000. Then the whole butter plant would be idle, depreciating in valuo every year. - Canada was supplying England to-day with about 74 per "cent, of the cheese imported,and New Zealand contributed only about four per cent. If Canada fell away by five per cent, that would be an opportunity for New Zealand to get good prices. He did not consider, however, that New -Zealand's small quota influenced the Home market in any way. This country's export was but a drop in the bucket. Let Canada increase her exports by five or ten per cent, and New Zealand would have to be content with a very much lower range of prices than this country had been getting lately. „ He did not know that there was any connection between the consumption of butter and cheese. There could be no question that the increased price obtained for cheese this year was owing principally to two factors — the shortage from Canada and the Chicago meat revelations. These American disclosures had probably stimulated the demand for cheese in the United Kingdom. It was known, of course, that the Americans were making every effort to regain control of the market, and pick up the trade that they had lost. The fact that they had appointed four hundred inspectors to supervise the meat business went to show that they were in earnest. "No one can advise. It \i a question of market — supply and demand. No one has any guarantee that the preseiit prices of cheese will be continued," stated the Government Dairy Commissioner, when asked for an opinion about the buttercheese controversy.