THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1925. THE BEST OF BUTTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19101, 20 August 1925, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1925. THE BEST OF BUTTER.

The world's butter championship, as decided at the Auckland Winter Exhibition, very happily has been won by a New Zealand factory. It is proved that quantity and quality are not inseparably in butter production, for it is not one of the great factories handling an immense supply of cream which bears the palm, but a small ono in the northern part of tho Wellington Province. Rangiwahia has made history for itself and for New Zealand at the Auckland Winter Exhibition. It was no perfunctory test. Competitors from Denmark, Ireland, Canada, the United States, several States in Australia, and Fiji all sent their best. An expert from tho Commonwealth, who watched the contest on behalf of Australian exhibitors, has expressed complete satisfaction with the conditions and the scrupulous impartiality of the judging. There can be no question, therefore, that the championship has been won in a truly representative contest, where no favour was shown. It is a wholly satisfactory result to the organisers of the Winter Exhibition, the dairying industry of New Zealand, and all who realiso what that industry means to the Dominion. The world was invited to send its best butter. The response was large and well distributed. The tests to which New Zealand subjects all its exported butter were applied, and a New Zealand competitor headed the list. The Winter Exhibition, which opens today, could not have had a happier preliminary. By holding this open championship it has done good work in making New Zealand known abroad. The result of tho judging enhances the value of the event, so that the organisers can feel the satisfaction of bringing benefit to the dairying industry and to New Zealand. If the championship contest helps to show the world the quality of New Zealand butter, it also teaches the Dominion producer that the world is full of eager competitors. A Queensland exhibitor gained second place. Other Australian factories were high on the list, while Ireland supplied second place among the contestants from abroad. As Mr. Carroll, the Australian expert, has said, there is evidence in all the countries competing of a keen desire to make their product suitable for the London market. The very presence of their butter in so distant a land as New Zealand shows that they are missing nothing which will help them in the attainment of their desire. The fact than New Zealand won and filled many other leading places should in no circumstances be held as justification for relaxing efforts to improve the quality of the butter output. The additional fact that overseas competitors were so numerous, so keen, and so well-equipped makes it all the more imperative that tho good fight for better butter and still better butter should continue. Factories great and small, whether they competed or not, should find in this event an inspiration and a warning. The successes won prove that New Zealand methods in the main are sound. The list of competitors and their achievements prove that there are others in the field who will not be content to see the Dominion's present supremacy remain unchallenged. The race for first place is under way in the open market as well as in the open championship. Let this Dominion see to it that no antagonist is forgotten, and that no legitimate means of outpacing him is overlooked. If that lesson is read from it, the world's butter championship contest will have done tho greatest possible good to tho dairying industry of New Zealand. Butter means much to this Dominion. Just how much can best be realised by considering its growth in importance among commodities exported. In 1904 its exportable value was £1,380,000, compared with £4,674,000 for wool, and £2,7-93,600 for frozen meat. In 1923 the values were: Butter £10,689,200, wool £10,904,658, frozen meat £9,012,600. Last year wool jumped phenomenally in price, so that the export figures reached £15,000,000. Butter continued its steady rise, reaching £11,642,000. For the first six months of this year, the increase in value of butter exported was continued. In this notable increase in export value, quantity and price have both played a part. The gross output can be swelled by various means. The breaking in of new territory to make dairy farms, careful attention to pasture by systematic top-dressing and other methods will add to tho bulk of butter produced. Herdtesting, accompanied by wise culling of unprofitable cows, has come much into favour, and very well deserving of favour it is too. The task of extending the output, given certain

necessary factors, is simple. Price in the world's markets is not equally under control. However the level may rise or fall, there is one way New Zealand can eccure the best rates offering, and that is by maintaining an excellence of quality placing its articlo at the top of the market. As this is an attainable objective, nothing necessary for its attainment should bo left undone. The importance of research as an assisting factor has been emphasised frequently. It should not be overlooked, but there is much to be done also in the factory and on the farm. Having regard to what butter means to New Zealand, and to the reputation, second to none, which the Dominion's product enjoys, the successes won in the open class at the Winter Exhibition should be an inspiration to work toward better and better results in the future.