BUTTER-MAKERS ON THEIR METTLE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 16 March 1914, Page 4

BUTTER-MAKERS ON THEIR METTLE.

! The success 'of margarine as a powerful rival of butter is putting butter-makers on their mettle in various parts of the world. In some of the Australian btates, the Government has been asked to assist in one way or another, and one of these was the substitution of a cypher mark for the open grade stamp on boxes of exported butter. It is not very clear how this merely mechanical change could benefit producers, but, those who made the request stated that there had been considerable losses on the part of some of the manufacturers by the grade stamp system, as the butter often improved while placed in cold storage, and that which had been stamped as second grade was almost equal to the first when it arrived in London; that being marked as second, only the price for second-grade could be

obtained for it; and that it was far! better to let the butter be sold on its own merits when it reached the London.! buyers, as in that way more profit could be obtained by the sellers. The Minis- j ter to whom this statement was made! was not impressed by it. He replied \ that the cases in which butter would improve in cold storage were not likely to be numerous enough to make an appreciable difference in the price generally, while the grade stamp practically gave the buyer a guarantee that the' butter was of such a standard quality, and would secure for it the current prices; and any occasional loss owing to a supposed improvement in the butter would be more than compensated for by the regularity of the prices practically secured through the reputation created and guaranteed hy the grade-stamp system. In any case, details of this description could never reach the root of the matter in the competition between margarine and butter, for the vital fact is that margarine now makes low-grade butter of comparatively little value. In the Old ! Country, pastry butter has been practically ousted from the workshops of the confectioners, and its place in many instances has been taken by margarine; and the work people in England, and in other countries, would rather purchase palatable and wholesome margarine at sixpence a pound than badmade and ill-flavored butter at the same price. At this rate, the rivalry of margarine can be effectively met only by keeping up the quality of the very best butter produced in the colonies and by practically withholding encouragement from the production and export of inferior grades; indeed, it would be well to increase if possible those restraints which have done so much in , our own Dominion and elsewhere to es- |- tablish the quality of first-grade butter and maintain its price. Encourage in every possible way the production and export of this, unassailable commodity, and it will continue to tie well with the great dairying industry