DAIRY PRODUCE NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10663, 25 May 1895, Page 6

DAIRY PRODUCE NOTES.

[COBBJBSPONDBNT " CANTERBURY TIMES.”! London, March 29. HIEGABINE. The Select Committee of the Houaeof Commons which ia engaged in an inquiry into the adulteration of food products, has been mainly concerned at its last few meetings with the question of margarine. Amongst the fitnesses called was Mr J. C. Lovell, of the well-known firm of Lovell and Christmas, This gentleman, like most of those called, desired further legislation to prevent margarine being sold as butter. lu the first place, ha would like the mixture of butter with margarine nrohibited, heavier fines impoced for selling margarine as butter, and a third conviction to carry the penalty of imprisonment. A BLUNDER. Mr Lovell proceeded to remark upon the import of Australian and New Zealand batters, and he made the remarkable statement that pure butter could bo (shipped in Australia at 3d auu landed in England for 4d! I cannot conceive how Mr Lovell could have blundered into such a statement. Ha, of all men, should have a pretty accurate idea of the extent to which the coat of producing butter in Australasia can bo reduced, but surely he does not deem 3d f.o.b. within the bounds of possibility. Perhaps Mr Lovell wanted to give the Danes a shook, and to persuade the Argentines and Sussians to turn their minds from dairying. Or, perchance, he was mia-reported. Saportera do occseionally make mistakes, I am told. THH MARKETS, The colonial butter market remains in a dull state, and the slight weakening in prices from last week's has not stimulated the demand. The retailers have come down to 10d for good Australian, but the increase in consumption caused by the drop ia too slight to be noticed. The current quotation for Australian finest is 76a, and only a few fancy brands —such as Heynolds’s ‘'Anchor’’—can be moved at & higher price. I fully expect that 70s will be tho top quotation for ordinary “ finest ” before April has gone, for no one seems to believe that holding on will do any good, and most of the agents are shovelling their consignments out as fast as they can, in the belief that worse is to come. Cheese is in no batter plight, and only the very choicest New Zealand will command 455. Lower grades araa drug in the market, and have to be peddled out in two’s and three’s at f|om 42a to 443. BOMB OTHER SMALL MATTERS.

I am a great admirer of enterprise, and would not willingly say one word to damp the ardour of those good colonists who are attempting to find outlets for the surplus food products of their colonies. But I must point out that in gauging the value of our markets for hares, rabbits, poultry, eggs, and ouch luxuries, colonisto are apt to overlook the fact that we are already well supplied with every article of food it is possible to send from Australasia, The financial results of small experimental shipments of game, poultry, &c., timed to arrive at opportune moments, are of little value as a guide to estimating the probable returns upon regular shipments. For instance, a small consignment of Australian rabbits arriving in London two months ago would have realised very profitable rates, bub at the present moment rabbits are plentiful as blackberries in autumn, and the Australian shipments have caused a perfect glut. Consequently prices are vary low, and the Victorian and New South Wales shippers will feel very sick whoa they get the returns and compare them with last year’s. Probably they based their calculations of profit upon the prices obtained twelve months ago (10d to Is), instead of reckoning, as they should have done, upon the rates obtained when the English markets were well supplied with rabbits. Shortages in any class of produce never continue long in the Old Country, and are generally followed by “ gluts.” In calculating the possibilities of our markets in regard to any, food stuff colonists should bear in mind that the supply is already equal to the demand except at irregular periods of uncertain duration j that any new supply must necessarily lower prices ; that the foreigners are loth o abandon eur markets, and will continue to supply us at prices which do nob give thorn a fair profit, in the hope that exporters in other countries will “ cry a gothat Australasian eggs, poultry, x'abbits, &0., are not superior to the imports from Franco, Euseia, Belgium and other continental countries; that the Home supply of all these eatables is on the increase, and that the quality of English farm produce is rapidly improving; that the probability of ' the Mother Country adopting any system of protection which would give colonial produce an advantage over foreign is exceedingly remote. I may here remark, for the benefit of those farmers who decline to believe that 2id a gallon for their milk is the necessary sequel to the low butter values this season, that the Euasians are preparing to invade the English market with butter and cheese, and that the Argentine farmers say that 60s a owt will pay them for butter. Memo for factory folk; Don’t economise on prenarvitaa; get the best, and limit your use of it to one-helf per cent.