AGRICULURAL AND DAIRY NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 8774, 15 March 1892, Page 4

AGRICULURAL AND DAIRY NOTES.

[Specially Collected Ini-obmahon by W.E.R ]

Recent consignments of batter—Send only first quality—How to guard against poor exports—The Victorian plan good —Mr Perceval’s views re salt and fresh —Salt preferred—An enthusiast concerning New Zealand provisions—Dr Duncan, of Hornsey Rise—Hia lecture —Mr Reynolds, of Auckland, presides —Tho Arawa’a cheese—Australian eggs for British breakfasts—An unpromising speculation—“ Eggs are cheap to-day.” London, January 29,

The experience of the past month has proved to me that that there are some things which they manage better in Victoria than in New Zealand. Your colony has every advantage over Victoria in the matter of producing the best of butter, cheese, etc., and yet the latter place takes precedence in the London market; and for one reason only viz., equality of quality. Some of the New Zealand butter received this year has been very fine —as good and pure as one could wish for—but the variety of quality that obtains in almost every consignment militates greatly against tin welfare of the trade. A portion of the produce sometimes suffers in transit, but in many cases that have come under my notice the fault has been entirely with the folk at your end of tho world. May I impress once again on your manufacturers tho necessity of sending only the very beat of everything? If poor quality—whether of mutton, cheese, butter, fruit, or honey—be sent, the exporter not only fails to profit by his venture, but, worse still, i creates in the minds of factors aud consumers 'a prejudice against the food products of the colony, and spoils the market of the consciemious importer. Quite recently in Victoria an inspector pounced down upon some 200 packages of butter ready for exportation to England, Tho casks or boxes were marked in bold characters “finest dairy produce.” But “Mr” Inspector had doubts of the stuff, sampled it, found it something worse than mediocre, ami refused to allow the consignment to be put on board ship. The exporter kicked up a rumpus, but the inspector was obdurate, and would not bo cajoled or bribed. He was backed up in his action by the Minister of Agriculture or some cuoh potentate, and the “finest dairy produce ” was left behind for home consumption or tho pig trough, If the Vic torian method of fostering the dairy produce industry—that is, by preventing the export of . mediocre and bad stuff-were adopted in New Zealand, it would, I think, bn to the colony’s advantage. In s-inic countries inanufaeturfs arc fostered by means of “bounties.” Why not create a “butter bounty ” by offering a substantial award to the manufacturer whose dairy produce realises the best average price on the Homo market each season ? Mr Perceval has an idea that New Zealanders should send only fresh butter to Eng’and, since the price for tlv.it article is in advance of that given for the salted. Beyond the question of keeping, there is against the Agent General’s suggestion the undeniable fact that the market for fresh butter, ;-.t all events in London, is not co good as for the other kind. The majority of Londoners (myself amongst them) prefer the slightly salted product to the absolutely fresh. To our depraved palates the condiment which contains from 3 to 5 per cent, of salt is infinitely preferable to the fresh article, and for a time you muse he content to pander to our tastes by giving us the best quality of salt butter you can turn ont. Moreover, some small quantities of fresh butter from the North Island have already been sent over, and, although epicures have pronounced it “wry fiue,” the importers’ margin of profit was not so largo as ic would have been on n similar quantity < f the beat salted butter.

Last week I received and accepted an invitation from Dr Duncan, of Horrsey Ri-:e, to hear him Uclure on ‘Snakes.’ I should not have tramped so far afield to listen to a discourse on the ophidia (with the obvious morals on sin thrown io), hut I knew that the reverend gentleman had taken great interest in the subject of New Zealand produce generally, had written eulogistically thereof in the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine,’ and had asked Mr Henry Reynolds, of Auckland, to take the chair, and improve the occasion by reading a paper on New Zealand as a source of supply for the necessaries and luxuries of life, The function took place in the 'hall annexed to Dr Duncan’s church, and capable of seating 200 persons. Owing, however, to a distressing prevalence of the influenza in the neighborhood, the building was not taxed to the full extent of its capabilities. Mr Reynolds’s paper was brief and to the point. Dr Duncan made a few remarks thereon, and emphasised the claims of New Zealand mutton, fruit, cheese, butter, tinned fish, and honey—all of which he declared most excellent on his own knowledge, backed up by the expressed opinions of his family circle. The lecture ended, some amateurs obliged with songs (sentimental), and then Dr Duncan drew the attention of the audience to a table near the entrance, on which were laid out samples of frozen mutton (cooked), batter, cheese, honey, and tinned fish from New Zealand, and invited all to taste and judge for themselves. The honey seemed to be the article which most folk were anxious to sample, and next to that the cheese. Dr Duncan is very enthusiastic on New Zealand, although he has never visited the colony. He is a fluent and somewhat flowery speaker, with a tolerable fund of humor. If he would only stump the provinces in the interests of your farm produce I am sure the demand for New Zealand food stuffs would increase, Mr Reynolds, by the way, has been “doing” the London suburbs thoroughly, and has persuaded many first-class retailers to become agents for the sale of New Zealand butter, cheese, etc. This « eek ho starts cn a Lngthy tour of the provinces on a similar errand.

The first consignment of this season’s New Zealand cheese is aboard the Arawa,butowing to the vessel having been detained at Spithead, in quarantine, none of the cheese is yet in the factrr’s hands—or was not on Thursday morning, though the vessel got into the Royal Albert Dock on Tuesday. Advices from Melbourne state that the Victorian Department of Agriculture is sending to London a sample case of twelve dozen eggs, specially preserved by some secret process. The eggs are to be distributed to leading dealers, and, if they arrive in marketable condition, steps are to be taken to open up a trade. We are told that the process of preservation adopted is most efficacious, and that eggs treated by it have been found sweet and good at the expiration of twelve months. The Victorians may think a remunerative market can be opened up in London for their surplus eggs, but I express without any hesitancy an opinion that they will discover they have made a mistake in a very short space of time. At any season cl the year one pan buy eggs in London at the rate of sixteen to twenty a shilling, and the legend “Eggs are cheap to-day ” is ever present with us. I have known factors make a very fair profit out of oases which they have bad to sell at the rate of thirty a shilling. New-laid eggs are,

of course, always worth from ls)d to 2£d each, according to tho seasons ; but no pro* cess can preserve to eggs the peculiar properties of the genuine new-laid article, nor add to the value of tho product in any way so far as the London market is concerned. Shopkeepers don’t buy eggs to keep, nor do tho public invest h»lf a crown in them when a shilling will cover their immediate requirements. We have had, moreover, many methods of preserving thrust under our notice in England, but every one has failed to stand the test of time. I remember that about ten years ago a Manchester genius claimed to have discovered a wonderful powder, a solution of which formed an elixir vilte that would endow the nourishing comestible with perpetual youth. This gentleman, like the Victorian inventors, gave forth that he had eaten eggs preserved by himself a twelvemonth after they bad been operated upon. Many farmers in the north tried the stuff, but only to find that Nature had undoubtedly asserted her sway at the expiry of a brief three months, The general opinion of tho Victorian schemes may be gathered from tho head-line with which a contemporary heads a short leader on the subject, It calls the proposed innovation “A New Terror,” and suggests that for their own protection consumers should refuse to touch the Australian eggs until the retailer has eaten in their presence one picked out of the case at random,