Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 1933. THE DAIRY SHOW.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 166, 13 June 1933, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 1933. THE DAIRY SHOW.

The National Dairy Show with its bountiful displays of dairy and farm produce and its many other branches of activity provides the focussing- point of interest, this week, for farmers from all parts of New Zealand. The Show has a wide propularity. Here annually farmers, principally those engaged in dairying and its sidelines, may gather to learn of the advancement their industry is making- and adapt the lessons for their-benefit. The gospel of the highest quality in produce is being preached throughout the Dominion. If New Zealand is to maintain her position in the London market, and beat her competitors ultimately in the race for supremacy, the acme in perfection of output must be obtained. The very best butter and cheese manufactured are to be seen _ at the Palmerston North exhibition and the quality will be the subject for many discussions. The present season has been a bountiful one. New records have been created in the quantity of dairy produce manufactured and shipped abroad. It is, however, quality that tells, and scientists and farm authorities have sought to bring this lesson home to the people concerned. Speaking at the annual conference in Dunedin of the South Island Dairy Association, Mr H. J. Middleton expressed regret that there had not been an earlier realisation of the fact that quality of output is more essential to the welfare of the dairying industry than quantity of output is. He estimates that neglect on the part of producers to make quality their first consideration in manufacture has entailed a loss of many millions of pounds to the Dominion. Research is, however, performing a valuable service to the industry, while regulations have v been brought into force to remove fundamental causes operating against the production of the highest grade article. Though the farming community are still passing through most difficult times, their interest in the annual Shows does not lessen in the least. It is because at heart the farmer and those immediately connected with his industry are eager to keep abreast of the latest developments. .Only by doing so will they reap the best reward of tlieir work. Disastrously low prices have ruled in the London markets for some time now, but there is an indication of a brighter outlook which, if it is not a spasmodic rise, will mean a. lot to the primary producers of this country. Butter and cheese, lamb and mutton, and wool are beginning to move forward without the stimulus of the World Economic and Monetary Conference. Its assembling may to a certain extent have influenced this upward tendency, but other factors appear to be working for more stable conditions. In an address at the Dunedin Winter Show, the Minister for Agriculture (Hon. C. E. Macmillan) spoke hopefully about the prospects _ of a higher level of prices being reached in the- near future. If the Conference achieves one of its biggest tasks —the raising of commodity prices to a remunerative level—then the Dominion will make even greater progress away from the effects of the depression. It may be, therefore, that the present National Dairy Show will mark a turning point iii the farming industry and be the last of the series held in the shadow of the economic depression. In all respects the exhibition is a worthy representation of the aims of the Manawatu and West Coast A. and P. Associa-

tion, and what may be called “Earmers’ Week” should be of the greatest benefit to the community it specially serves with the educative lessons to be learned and meetings to be held. ■