THE BUTTER BUSINESS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 280, 25 November 1912, Page 6

THE BUTTER BUSINESS.

Mr A. S. Page, of Messrs Samuel Pa<*e and Son, the well-known Lon-} don produce agents, has been tpurmg j New South Wales, and addressing the | i different butter factory directorates. Mr Page, in th© course ot ma re- » marks, paid a tribute to the work of j Mr Meares, general manager ot_ ttie { CF S accomplished m this fetate, 5 in 'frustrating the operations ot j speculators. He also referred to the . ■! work of the co-operative committee j sin London. , ; , -,^t Mr Page said that Denmark; had \ I now reached the zenith of her produc- j ■ tion, while the wealth, of Germany ( had increased so enormously that she j \ had not only long ceased to export j i butter to Great Britain, but was a j ! large buyer from Denmark and'; ! Siberia, and every year her requireI ments Would be on ■& larger scale. | For the same reason shipments trom < \ the United States came to an end, | \ and tlieir vast population made in- | ; creasing demands upon Canada, which | had practically ceased to send butter to London, and was now buying largely from New Zealand. It was evident that Argentina's exports ip j London would not develop on the .' scale expected. "There are over 45 millions of people to be fed in Great Britain, while the population of.Lon- j don alone is something like twice as j great as' you have in the whole of t ! Australia—a country 500 square miles j j larger than the whole, of the United •; * States, and two-thirds the size of j I Europe, including Russia—and every] ! year that passes will show & great in- j ; crease of population, with a propor- J ; tionato decrease in the means of feed- j ■ ing them, except by imports ,and now j i that I have been travelling nearly ; five months -throughout New Zealand j and. the Australian States, and seen • j the enormous tracts of undeveloped 1 I country, I am able to realise what I < I could never have known if I had re- j j mained at Home, namely, th© splen- ( did, future in store for your dairying j industry. I have been brought to « t fully understand the disabilities under j I which you have had to work, the '■ ' length of time before cream reaches • 1 the factories and the long distances j some of the butter has to travel be- 1 fore it can be shipped, so I am filled with wonder at the results which you

have achieved, and I am confidant that with more people working on the? land, and the mean£ of communication improving each year, the great success of these last 31 years will,be as nothing compared with the progress of the future." Mr Page advised the dairy farmers to keep the speculators.out of their business, and said that if they sold at fixed price two months before the value of the goods could be ascertained on the London market, the odds were greatly against them. The same avenues of sale were open to them, and these men did not come to buy from any motive of benevolence but with the natural aim of intercepting a portion of the profits which :were due to the producer.. He urged them hot to create competition against themselves by splitting consignments. Factories that had adopted this system had in view the incentive to each agent to beat the other's returns, but those factories which receive divided supplies of cream should be able to realise what often happens in these circumstances, and independently of that, they were not reckoning with, the buyers, who soon got to knew which brands were divided. It was the simplest matter to pit one agent against another, and buyers infallibly secure those brands at lower prices than if th© accounts were not/divided.

The best of their butter was superior to the European, which was available in the winter months, but Danish commanded higher prices,, because millions of people in the north, and in the Midland countries of England had been brought up on it from their cradles, and pasteurisation had produced a uniformity of flavor to which they were accustomed, added to which a large portion was retailed at cost prices by companies who made a leading article of it, and trusted to enormous sales of tea and margarine for their profit. If the usual profit were charged on Danish butter, th© consumption would decline, and more people would bo driven on to Australia and New Zealand. In London and the Home countries, and also in the West of England, their butter ruled the market during the months in which it was available, and he hoped the time was not far distant when they would be able to keep Londonsupplied all the year round.

The Australian plain square box and t/he New Zealand plain oblong box were the best packages in the world for the carriage of butter; but buyers were greatly opposed to the wirebound box,' as it was too fragile, and the wire was apt to tear peoples hands and clothes.. Again if the butter came in contact with apple flavor or other taint on the voyage ;the damage was more serious vthan in those brands which were packedl in tho thickei-,. old-fashioned box. The wired package once opened is useless to retailers, while the . second-hand stouter box has always a market value.

Regarding prospects for the current season, Mr rage said Great Britain had suffered • from a very severe drought the summer before last, and it would be some time before any recovery in the production took place. On top of that-—they had exceptionally, heavy rains throughout the United Kingdom, which spoilt the hay crops, the damage being estimated at about £5,000,000. Coming so soon after the dry weather last year, this would cause a niaterial decline in the hom<9 production. Coupled with the increased consumption, a, high range of values for Australian goods was assumed. London will be more and more dependent upon Australia for supplies of dairy produce &s the time goes on, and while older countries had reached their limit this country was only just beginning. Furthermore, everything points to the fact that they will never go.back to the lot^ prices of former years.