NEW ZEALAND CHEESE-MAKING

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 February 1931, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND CHEESE-MAKING

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I have read with some dismay under the heading of “New Zealand Cheese Making” in current issues of the Taranaki press some caustic criticisms of our methods of cliee.se making by Mrs. Margaret T. Harrison, N.D.1)., 8.D.F.A., Dip. Mrs. Harrison is “trailing her coat” and, being the son of an Irishman, she mustpardon me if I tread on the tail of it. Her story is an old one, just broken out in a fresh place. We have had men from Dairy Institutes, Agricultural Colleges, Dairy Research Schools, as well as Irish butter makers and Tipperary cheese makers, including students and professors themselves, all with credentials long enough to endow them with the privilege of criticising ■our allegedly ignorant, unshaven cheese makers, and like their more modern champion of wisdom they have been “big noises” during the opening pages of their book of knowledge, but seem to fade into thin air when asked to show us how it is all done. We are still crying “come over to .Macedonia and help us.” It is regrettable that Mrs. Harrison did not have an interview with Professor Riddet before rushing into print. Our cheese industry to-day pins its faith on the Director of the Dairy Research Institute and his able staff at Massey College, recognising also the invaluable services given by Mr. P. O. Veale, of the Hawera laboratory. Having regard to the latest difficulties under which our cheese makers are labouring, the Dairy Research Institute, under the able directorship of Professor Riddet, has been concentrating on cheese problems, cause and effect, during the greater part of the last two years. Progress has been slow, and it is fortunate that Professor inherits a balanced measure of that Scottish tradition, reticence in the absence of authentic facts. I have read with interest every article appearing in your columns about cheese quality, some of which have been sound and 'constructive, others less valuable, but I have considered it was not worth while challenging any of them. An unwarranted attack upon our factory managers, however, is another matter, and Mrs. Harrison sorely displays her lack of wisdom in arriving at such conclusions without a wider investigation of facts. It may be that Mrs. Harrison acts on the principle that instinct is better than misguided reason, but it is well to balance the scales of instinct with an even weight of discretion.

1 hove no desire to enter into a controversy regarding the details of the method of butter or cheese making in New Zealand, although I have a whole lot of data at my disposal, practical experience included. It is sufficient to say that our cheese makers of New Zealand, in their knowledge of the art, their interest and care in its application in all departments, are men on the average who can hold their own with any cheesemaking country in the world, the unshaven ones thrown in, and there is no section of the community that can dispute that fact. It is certain that if Mrs. Harrison starts wading out into our cheese-making problems she will find herself well out of her depth, regardless of her many credentials, and it may fall to the lot of some of our unshaven brothers to come to her rescue. ,T. MURRAY, Dominion Secretary, New Zealand Dairy Factory Managers’ Association, Inc. Feb. 6, 1931.