The Hastings Standard Published Daily SATURDAY, SEPT. 4, 1897. BUTTER AND CHESE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 417, 4 September 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

SATURDAY, SEPT. 4, 1897. BUTTER AND CHESE.

Rer the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

That the dairy industry is of considerable importance to the colony is yearly becoming more and more apparent; and with its increasing importance greater attention is being paid to the finer points of the trade, and we have no doubt that in a few years the value of the dairy trade to the colony will be enormous. That excellent and trustworthy publication " The New Zealand Trade Review " furnishes some figures that ought to be studied by the small fanners of Hawke's Bay and a proper application made for them. Dealing with the year ended 30th June the quantities and values for the past three years are stated as under : 1894-5. Quantity. Value. cwt. £ Butter ... 58,635 231,700 Cheese ... 80,032 160,061 £391,761 1895-6. cwt. £ Butter ... 61,945 250,885 Cheese ... 67,262 121,993 £372,878 1896-7. cwt. £ Butter ... 88,683 357,187 • Cheese ... 78,384 151,298 £508,48t> ' It will be seen from the above figures that the manufacture of butter has received special attention, the quantity produced during the past season being more than 50 per cent, greater than was produced in 1894-5. In cheese production the quantity exported three years ago has not been reached in the two succeeding seasons, but there is every reason to believe that in the coming season very much better results will be obtained. The price of cheese in the London market has ranged high for the past year, the average for the New Zealand output being 40s per cwt., against 36s 8d in 1895-6, and 88s 7d in 1894-5. Butter, on the contrary, has steadily declined, the average) for the past three seftgo-is

being 80s 6d, 81s, and 795. The butter producers, however, did remarkably well during the-past season owing to the strong demand from Australia occasioned by the drought curtailing local supplies. Dealing first with butter, we find from the figures that the trade from the South Island is much below that enjoyed by the North Island, the quantity exported from the North being 74,350cwt, and from the South 14,388cwt. The butter exported from Taranaki amounted to 47,280cwt, being slightly more than half of the entire export from New Zealand. Hawke's Bay does not figure for a single pound weight of butter, and more is the pity. In the export of cheese the South Island leads with 42,156cwt, the quantity shipped from the North Island being 36,228cwt. Otago is the heaviest producer of C leese, the quantity exported from Dunedin being 33,tf95cwt, or nearly half of the entire export from the colony. The Taranaki province, while showing considerable advance in butter production, has not neglected cheesemakiug, and the output for the past season, 16,797cwt, is 2,618 cwt better than in the previous year. The export o£ cheese from the Hawke's Bay district by way of Napier for the past season was 7cwt., valued at £l4, which is indeed a marvellous advance upon the previous season, for the simple reason that the figures for 1895-6 are represented by blanks. In commenting on these figures the Review says : —" The increase in the total value of butter is £106,302, of which £91,632 arises in the North Island and £14,670 in the South Island. Taranaki, however, claims the bulk of the improvement in an increase at the ports of New Plymouth and Waitara of £89,984, or nearly 84 per cent, of the whole. It appears probable that Patea, Wanganui, and Wellington formerly got the credit of exports that now go to swell the record of Taranaki, as a result of either better facilities for shipment or of greater carefulness in carrying out the system of recording the exports to the credit of the port of the producing district instead of the port whence the goods actually leave the colony. Whatever is the explanation, it is apparent that more than half the butter that we export comes from the Taranaki district while more than 84 per cent, of Wis from the North Island." There is no doubt that in the future the exports will increase m volume ; even in the coming season it is confidently anticipated that the Taranaki output w;ll be nearly double what it was during the past year. Buttermaking appears to have already begun, and the first shipment from Taranaki is now on the way to London. The dairy industry gives promise of being the making of Taranaki, and the small settlers there find ample scope for their energies and considerable profit in the trade. It is fortunate for the "garden of New Zealand" that its settlement has been in small areas, otherwise we are quite certain that the dairy industry would not have been so strong a feature of the locality. The experience of Hawke's Bay amply proves that. Here we .cannot get beyond wool and mutton, the large holdings being a veritable bar to the initiation of the dairy industry. There may be a change when the Government steps in and brings about closer settlement under the powers conferred by the Land for Settlements Act.