NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 25 April 1914, Page 10

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

SOME COMMENTS BY MR J A RUDDICK.

Dujhi- the twelve months which. 7 nos«,X arch 3i l08J« imported 0,018,022 pounds came fro-:i New Zea- I Jjnd write* Mr ,T. A. Ruddick, +b e Canadian Dairy Co-imi^ioner. w ], O 'i will oe rememhered by New Zealand- | «rs as a former commissioner in th^ ' Dornmion. At first sigat. it se«n\s i ratner stranorp tbnt an rifrricnltvra] j •country like Canada s'l^ild be olMir^d ! 'to import even a s-noTi pnrt of ' its I isnpnW of dairy prodnre. Of t 'Canada could or\silv h*vn .si7r)i^'"d n]| ' 'her own needs in the o n hiitW % :mr»ld"K that n:u-h less choe?e, Ix't

many farmers have found that cheesemakmg has paid them best of late years and it would be poor business on their part to lose money for the saive or keeping out some New Zealand butter.

it. is worth while remembering in this connection that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, next to the United States, is the greatest producer of dairy products in the world not even excepting Canada, and yet the quantity of butter and cheese imported into that country is several limes greater than the im'oorts of all other countries in the world combined ihe situation with respect to the direct importation of New Zealand butter for the Pacific Coast trade is to a large extent a geographical rather than a commercial one. The ocean freight from IMew Zealand to Vancouver is about the same as the rail freight from Axontreal. The demand is heaviest during the winter of the Northern Hemisphere, which is, of course, the season of fullest production in the Southern Hemisphere, and thus New Zealand is ab^e to send fresh supplies of summermade butter during the period when it competes with stored butter from Eastern Canada.

The fresh made article is naturally preferred, and as the cost of carrying the Eastern Canada summer butter until it is required in the winter is nearly as great as the duty1 on the rsew Zealand article, it would seem quite probable that the British Columoia markets will continue to take a considerable quantity of New Zealand butter until such time as the western provinces produce sufficient for their own needs.

The nrice of butter in New Zealand on account of the surplus for export is regulated by the world's markets, bales have been made recently for Vancouver delivery at 24 cents' f.o.b. New Zealand, which is three or four cents below the price obtained by Canadian creameries on the same date. The margin is more than sufficient to pa.y the duty.

The price of butter in Canada has for some time ruled considerably above its export value. There is another advantage which the New Zealand butter has m the British Columbia market, and it is this: that it is carried from Wellington to Auckland in a ship's refrigerator at a sufficiently low temperature to prevent deterioration, while the temperature in a refrigerator car going across the continent is never low enough to keep butter for any length of time without some injury to its quality, and the. journey from Montreal to Vancouver by rail may take as long, or nearly so, as the voyage from New Zealand.

The exports of dairy produce to the United States have risen to some importance during the past three or four years, and in view of the recent changes in the United States tariff, by which the duty on cheese and butter is reduced from six cents to two and a half cents per pound, the milk and cream are included .in the free list, for the avowed purpose of encouraging the importation of these articles, it may not be out of place to refer briefly to our trade with that country.

I am not prepared to express a very definite opinion as to what effect the new (JuiteJ States tariff will have on the Canadian dairy trade. Of course, 10 leqv.nes :u.< sr^ure-.it to show that butter may be errnortei to the United ocatc.3 under a a-, a aivl a half cents '•u-v Tvith Jess diffev-rce in values in the t-.<-o countries than under the old tariff or six cents a round. It is possible that there may be some inducement at times-to export cheese, but ifc is nob likolv that there \viil ever be any large amount of Canadian cheese shipped to the United States. The removal"of the diitv of five cents a gallon on cream, which, a-s has already been stated, is equal to about one and a quarter cents a pound on batter, is a much smaller reduction. than the three and a half cents winch has been taken off the duty on butter, and it would seem on tne face of it that the present tariff would not be c.s favorable to the export of creara. as the old tariff was, because tae saving of duty by exporting cream win bo much less now than ib was before. It costs much more to ship =ream than it does to shin butter. I here may be an extension of the trade, in sweet cream for table use, in close proximity to large markets like Buffalo and Detroit, and possibly to some extent along the St. 'Lawrence and Quebec borders.

It saems quite probable also that there may be considerable increase in the quantity of fresh milk exported under the new tariff. At the present time American buyers are picking up cows in considerable numbers in Eastern Ontario for shipment to the United States. Farmers in this section who are short of feed are tempted by the high prices, offered, but in some cases they are simply discarding the unprofitable cows which have been di&covered through the system of cow testing. One thing is certain, that if there is any large movement of cows or dairy produce across the line, the tendency will be to equalise nrices in, the two countries.