AFTER TWENTY YEARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18364, 3 April 1923, Page 6

AFTER TWENTY YEARS.

EXPANSION OF DAIRYING..

"A GREAT STEP -FORWARD."

DOMINION'S POSSIBILITIES.

After about three weeks spent in investigating dairying conditions in New Zealand, and a visit to Australia for a similar purpose, Mr. J. A. Ruddick, dairy and cold storage commissioner to the Department of Agriculture of Canada, is a through passenger for Vancouver by the steamer Makura, which arrived at Auckland yesterday from Sydney. Mr. Ruddick, about 25 years ago, held the position of dairy commissioner to the New Zealand Government. Ho was so engaged for some considerable time, finally leaving the Dominion in 1900. " Looking back to those old day;:," said Mr. Ruddick yesterday, " it was very interesting to me to come back ones more and note the great improvements and the notable advances that have been made since I left. There has been a great step forward in production. That, of course, is only natural, but it is equally noticeable that, in methods and in equipment things have indeed gone ahead. When I left hero in 1900 Taranaki was practically a rough country. Now it is a land of clean paddocks, weir grassed, has good roads, comfortable homesteads, and generally a good air of prosperity. " New Zealand, I consider, in now doing exceedingly well in dairying. In my tour through various parts of the Dominion I had ample opportunity of seeing how matters wero trending. Certainly 1 see no reason why the dairying industry should not continue to expand hero, although perhaps at not quite so rapid a rate as during the past few years. High prices during the war no doubt stimulated production, and it is hardly to bo supposed that the same rate of increase will prevail as during that period. Still, there is plenty of room for expansion, as bush lands are brought into cultivation and sheep country turned into dairy farms." During his tour through the dairying districts of Australia Mr. Ruddick visited a number of" factories in Now South Wales and Victoria. So far as numbers were concerned he had found that milking Shorthorns were leading, and some of the stock was of a very high grade. Victoria had had a good season and luckily had not suffered much from want of rain. Less fortunate had been certain areas of Queensland and New South Wales, where dry weather' had caused heavy losses.