FARMERS' BUTTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13495, 23 May 1907, Page 3

FARMERS' BUTTER

Sir, — good deal of discussion has been going 011 re the above, and L thought, perhaps, 1 might be abb to straighten things out a bit by a little explanation, i am writing my personal opinion and in no way bind my firm to my views. The prosent market quotation, I admit, is, at times, unsatisfactory, anil ax neither I not my firm arc members of the committee, I cannot bo accused of holding any brief for them. The first point I. shall deal with is quality. This is the rock on which many farmers make shipwreck. A good many think that because they have a separator they* make the best butter, and they cannot bo convinced to tho contrary. Of course there are those who make good butter, and these get a fair price, and you hear few complaints from them. There is a limited demand for the best separator in the city, and . when »this >» supplied the question arises, What is to lie clone with the poorer quality, and.' the,balance of the better class that- is in excess of the local demand'.' There is only one outlet, and that is to mill and export it. Seeing that 1 have handled and milled about 50 tons of this class of butter this year, 1 claim to speak , with some authority, and can prove that farmers' separator butter has been bought in Auckland, milled, sent to tho United Kingdom, and sold for less than it. originally cost, and yet. the farmers (some of them, I should say) complain about ths price they are receiving. The season past has been the worst in my experience for muggy weather and the poor quality of farmers' - butter. I - have < had; butter - come to me this 'year straight out- of tin churn (a cloth being put into, the box to'hold it), and containing two or three pounds of water;; and ibutter-miiJci' and. jet the " supplier has expected .to be paid for full weight as best quality, although the butter had gone sour through the butter-milk remaining in it. The question comes, " Oan a price bo fixed for this class of butter > which will bo fair to all?'' I say. No. The present prioo (7d) is too high, that is, according to prices ruling at Home. Reports come to hand through the papers that, "the butter market is flat, secondaries (milled, dairy, etc.) dull of sale," etc, Tho last advices from Home give milled butter us worth from 75s to 77e per ewt (about B<i per lb). That means 3d, loss Id. freight, ■ commission, otc,' and Id milling, boxing, ■ salting, and working expenses, leaving tho ' net value of tho butter at 6d per lb. By all means auction it I consider it the only 1 "Way of 'determining its ' valUe.'" H. G. Him.

•"i'.:'::. 1 . PYRITES smelting! l ' Sir,—As one deeply interested 'in tfce mining; development of this province, it is a ; mutter, of great surprise''. :to \ ino that smelting, with its enormous possibilities, has not yet been tried here for tho treatment of the so-called refractory ores of the Thames.- Peninsula. ; /'According to Rickard, in his, recent book" on >*■" Pyrito Smelting" (a work in which some twenty of tho leading pyrite smelters of the day teetify to tho groat success of this method), Any, ore containing' gold or silver can bo successfully treated by this process, any ingredient which such ores may lack being supplied by tho addition of fluxes contain* ing the needed constituents.'- If : such bo tho case, and the authority given /leaves no room for doubt, surely a suitable combination might be found from tho vast varieties of ore at Thames, AVaiomo, and Coromandel, .and the newly-discovered copper .depoßHf;Ca,fe.iW^Mgaroa; r whicfi' would: give . sood rcturfie on- t,lie ' capital invested. At MountSLyell, Rio Tinto, Anaconda," and many other large mines, this process is now in use, and paying splendid dividfends on low-grade brW.' Why does not Auckland wake up and utilise the vast stores of wealth which lie nearly untouched at her very doors? Hoping, some abler pen than mi no will open- lip;'this important;- 1 subject still farther. ' "" ' ' ' I'TBITE. :