The Star. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1888. HOPEFUL PROSPECTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1835, 23 January 1888, Page 2

The Star. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1888. HOPEFUL PROSPECTS.

A telegham published in Saturdaj's issue tends to confirm the hope oil a good prospect being before the dairy farmers. The telegram, which came from Sydney, stated : " The shipment of butter sent Home from here fetched one shilling per lb., and is described as the best ever seen, excelling the Danish, and that there is nothing in the market to compare with it. The agents to whom the shipment was consigned are confident of being able to readily establish a permanent market for it." It is not long ago since a similar report was made of Victorian butter in England. Can there be any reason why New Zealand butter should not meet with as good a reception ? It is not for a moment to be imagined that better butter can be exported from New South Wales or Victoria than from this colony. The pasturage of New Zealand is unsurpassable, and surely our dairy farmers are not less skilful than their brethren in the adjoining colonies. At all events the butter turned out from the factories should speedily become of even high-class quality. And in favor of New Zealand, it must be remembered that here we have but little of the droughty weather experienced in the Australian colonies, none of those periods of intense heat which dry up the pastures and make dairying difficult if not impossible. These drawbacks must always handicap our neighbors, and the absence of them here give our farmers a start in the race. The Melbourne Argus recently discussing this matter, complained that even the Victorian local market is not supplied with any degree of regularity. "There is no reason," says the Argus, " why the farmer should not [in Melbourne] get a shilling a pound all the year round, and the customer obtain his supplies at 13d or 13^d, except for the rapacity of the middleman, who naturally earns all he can get for himself, the imperfect condition of dairy farming in the colony, which limits the season of productiveness to four months in the year, with a chance of a month or six wc^ks longer if abundant rains fall in December or January, and the absence of certain methods and appliances now in use in other countries, by which butter can be kept for a twelvemonth, and more perfectly fresh and sweet, and with the fragrant aroma of grass and clover still remaining in it. Householders among ourselves often contract with farmers for a regular weekly supply of butter at Is up to Is 2d per lb the year round, and the arrangement at its inception is considered advantageous to all parties concerned, but the farmer fails to fulfil his part of the bargain with the first season of drought, having no reserve or cowfeed to fall back upon, nor any stock of butter in store with which to keep his customers going." We know that the same may be said of New South Wales. There is daily becoming good reason for hoping that a steady and remunerative market may be found in Great Britain for our butter, and we have no doubt that this year's export returns will show an important development in the trade. It seems that the only thing required to ensure success is evenness, excellence of quality. "We cannot believe that, when delivery of their produce in a marketable condition is the only difficulty which stands between our farmers and a golden reward for their labor, some means will not be speedily devised for overcoming it, especially when when the cause of the difficulty can only be a little want of care in the dairy or in the process of transmission. A shilling a pound in England should mean, at least, 8d or 9d to the producer, a fabulously handsome return now-a-days.

Mr. Holmes will, we (Taranaki News) understand, proceed at once to make the survey of the Stratford route to the Main North Trunk line of railway, and Mr. Blackett, jun., will have charge of the party who will make the survey of the route via the Muni.