VICTORIAN DAIRYIN a ENQUIRY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 7052, 13 October 1900, Page 2

VICTORIAN DAIRYIN a ENQUIRY.

For many months past a board has been sitting in Victoria to enquire and report upon the deterioration of butter made for export, and to suggest a remedy. The immediate occasion for the appointment of the board wan that during last season Victorian butter sold in London for lower prices as compared with Danish than for several years previously, and also that reports had been received from London agents complaining that the proportion of Victorian choice butter was becoming lees, and the general average of quality lower. In 1894-5 Victorian butter was quoted at 6s 2d lower than Danish, and the difference Was since gradually increased, till last season it was 15s 4d. Having visited a large number of factories, and examined 140 witnesses, the board has made a report, but we are bound to say that, while we looked forward to this document with the hope that there would be something of practical value to Taranaki producers, its tenor really seems to indicate that the evils discovered in the sister colony are mainly those which New Zealanders have avoided. The board show that 41 per cent, of the Victorian suppliers used the hand separator, and separated on their own farms, and this is held to be one of the main causes of trouble. Another weak point is the tendency to rail cream hundreds of miles to large city factories, the result of which is not good. Another drawback is the povertystricken finance of some of the factories, preventing up-to-date improvements being made in the plant. Among the board's recommendations, in addition to remedying the evils already referred to, are that loans should be granted in cases where milk suppliers wished to convert their local factories from a proprietary to a co-operative basis, or desired to start a new factory. Prizes should be offered by the Government for the bestmanaged factories and creameries. Factory managers should be better paid, and should receive proper instruction. The need of a dairy school, with short courses of instruction for present managers, and travelling scholarships, was affirmed. The pasteurisation of cream and the uso of "pure starters" should be made universal throughout Victoria, and active steps should be at once taken to popularise this system and to overcome initial difficulties. It was also recommended that a federal or Australian officer should be appointed to keep a record in London of the quality of the butter sent to that market, and a suggestion was made that there should be a committee in London to watch the English markets and regulate the supplies of Australian butters placed on them.