NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE FOR THE ENGLISH MARKET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9154, 8 September 1888, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE FOR THE ENGLISH MARKET.

THE OPINIONS OF A LONDON EXPERT. [by telegraph.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Friday. Mr. E. Meadows, whom I mentioned in my last dispatch, goes to Auckland in a few days, lie*" will give lectures, if desired, upon the proper mode of making and packing cheese for the English market. Here is what he says: —"Several of my correspondents declare that the people of New Zealand seem to be altogether unaware of the enormous advantages they possess. Your butter-makers and cheese-makers appear to be working in the dark. They do riot consider the wants of the English market. They send small cheeses, which do not ripen, but harden. The Canadian buttermakers have all their kegs made of one size and pattern, wider at the top than at the bottom, so that buyers can slip the butter easily out of the keg on his marble stand, and cut it up without waste ; but in your present style of New Zealand kegs the amount of waste is a serious drawback to the retailer, and of course the prices obtained suffer in consequence." Then as to cheese, he says " The cheese now wanted at home should be t>olb in weight. It should be as fat as it is possible to make it. It should be made a white, light straw colour, or darker, just as the different markets require, but to send small, miserable size cheese is a great mistake. A 601b cheese matures much better, and cuts out to greater advantage to the retailer. The cheese docs well packed in long boxes with a board between each cheese, and the sides of the box open sufficiently to let the air circulate freely all all round each cheese. It is a great mistake for your factories to store the cheese too long in this colony. My experience teaches me that cheese is best shipped to London when it has reached 21 days old. It will mature enough on the voyage, and besides, it is turned into money all the sooner." I may state that the Minister of Lands is preparing an appendix to Mr. McCallum's report, giving a summary of expert opinions and instructions, the whole to be issued in pamphlet form.