NEW ZEALAND DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10600, 8 March 1895, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND DAIRY INDUSTRY.

TO TEE EDITOR. Sir, — I notice in one of your contemporaries a very gloomy account of this industry, reported by its London correspondent from Mr Reynolds. It ia not long ago that Mr Reynolds gave out that New Zealand could not afford to sell butter under Is per lb in London, and I thought then that factories whose expenses were so great as required such prices must give way. I maintain that lOd ia London will pay all parties concerned, provided that the industry is conducted on an economical basis. 1 believe that the creamery system would never have bean started in Victoria had it not been for the Govern meat bonus. This system, I have maintained, has always bean too expensive. Every factory should complete the process, and save all expense of railoge of cream. Further, I maintain. that the condition of the cream ia deteriorated by being hauled about. Since my visit to London I am satisfied that the trade requires educating iu dealing with frozen butter, and an improvement can be made in the distribution in London. The Danes, are feeling tho competition moro than wo are, for they havo tc handfeed all their stock, which is very expensive. If wo cannot compete with winter hand-fad dairying, then wo shall have to go under. All I say is, we ought to be able to drive the Continent out of the field with our summer production against their winter. There is no doubt our freight is too high, and I have always opposed the paying of n freezing rate for the wooden boxes, which means 20 ’ per cent. Wo pay a good freight for carrying and freezing the butter, but the cases should net ba charged- for. Tho rata should bo on butter. It is vary well to pay gross weight on a 30s general rate, but it is absurd to pay gross on frozen rates, which are £7 per ton with 5 par cent on. Then, again, there is no doubt that the price of land must drop considerably. Renci are much higher round Christchurch than in tho best dairying districts of Devonshire and Cornwall. Before closing this letter I wouli rt. > that the low price of butter is causing margarine to give way. The excess of butter imports has caused a corresponding decrease in the imports of margarine, which still amount to over 100,000 tons per annum. If margarine had to ba sold ia its natural colour, and not made to represent butter, the industry would soon die out. I must admit that the general outlook for farm produce is not encouraging, and to my mind cannot improve until England and the colonies join in a freetrade federation, with a protective tariff against foreign nations. England ia ripe for it; it only requires the colonies to start the ball rolling. This, to my mind, is tho only thing that can make the colonies boom again,—l am, '&e„

G. S. J AKINS,