BRANDING BUTTER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1037, 15 January 1892, Page 25

BRANDING BUTTER.

A deputation of butter and cheese makers met the Minister of Agriculture recently in Dunedin and urged lnm to take steps to have all butter and cheese graded and by experts before it left tbo Colony. The Minister has promised to keep the matter Bteadily in view. The Victorian Minister of Agriculture has a firm conviction tuat it is necessary for the welfare of the butter trade that every keg leaving the Colony shall be examined and branded, and to this end has appointed experts for the purpose. Only a fortnight ago two lots of butter were rejected from the supply sent forward for shipment by the P. A O. Company’s steamer Ballarat. One lot was received from a consignor whose butter was not up to the recognised standard on a former occasion, and the other from a factory which, strange to Bay, turned out butter in the first instance which brought 116 s per cwf. in the Loudo.i market. This latter lot is described by the agricultural department a expert as the worst sample ever received at the cool storage sheds. The-quan-tity rejected was eighty cases, containing 2 tons. The reason for the rejection of the butter was that it vvas below the standard of quality, which the Minister of Agriculture has decided ought to be maintained. „ The "Victorian Agricultural Department have experts to grade and brand all butters exported. Now, mark the result. Australian butter is fetching higher prices in London than New Zealand butter. If the Victorians continue the grading of butter and the people of, this Colonv neglect it, by another season the Victorian butter will take a very pronounced iead in the English markets. A conference oF men deeply interested in lhe butter industry was recently held in the Government Buildings in Melbourne, under the Presi dency of Mr John Fisher. The meeting requested the Minister to continue the work of the experts, thereby preventing any possibility of inferior butter leaving Melbourne, by, placing a uniform Government mark on each package, denoting that the package had passed the Government expert. Later in the day a deputation, accompanied by Mr Anderson, Mr Webb,

Mr Young, and Mr Murray, Ms.L.A., laid this resolution before the Minister for Agriculture, who explained that his only object m calling the conference was to keep up the standard of Victorian butter. It was possible (bat this year might be the last of the butter bonuses, but the Government must still have the supervision of the butter. . .For the past four years this journal has steadily advocated the grading and branding of butter before it leaves the Colony. There are those who are opposed to such a scheme, and cannot see its utility. The Danish Government recognise its importance, and now the Victorian Government follow euit. New Zealand butter will not lead the market, until a similar scheme is worked here.