FREEZING BUTTER AT PATEA

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4317, 28 March 1901, Page 3

FREEZING BUTTER AT PATEA

—— - - -- • WHAT IT WILL MEAN. 'ITIF. REPUTATION OF NEW ZEALAND PUTTER. MORE 1 lIRF.G t" LAR IT Y AND ADDITION A L EX PENSE. The announcement that a. co-opera-tive freezing company is to he ('armed at Patea is, from the standpoint of the dairying movement, a backward step, and a decided menace to the reputation of New Zealand butter, the freezing o: which is the principal object of Hie company's formation. The promoters have evidently been moved to action by the success of the Taranaki Freezing Works Company at Now Plymouth, hut the nr.rural conditions of the two ports are very dissimilar. In the fiivL - place, it mast be understood that butter is the most nrrishnble article known to commerce, and that the success of Hie trade between this colony and tin- United Kingdom principally rests on the storage ami c.trriiige of tho butter at such a temperature as will prevent the action of the g erm life which brings about cleM torioration. At present Taranaki butter is all shipped through the one channel, tho New Plymouth Company, and tho butter, thunks to the care of thin company and the officers of the Union Steam Ship Company, reaches Wellington and is shipped direct from the coastal steamer into the Homo boat in n most satisfactory condition. .Such a little margin is there, however, between the degree, of temperature at which the butter arrives and the de’grce at which the Homo steamers will refuse to receive it into their refrigerated holds, that the Auckland butter, carried by itself in the same coastal steamers—that is without the advantage of the Taranaki butter being stowed on top of it from New Plymouth to Wellington—is sometimes over the temperature allowed by the direct steamers, and, consequently, has to he carted’to the Wellington freezing works and brought down to the reijiiired temperature' before being put on board the Home boats: all this adding greatly to the first coM of the butter. If this occurs with butter brought down by tho class «f beat running between Onehunga and Wellington, it may naturally lie expected that tho same thing would occur with butter carried in the small steamers running to this port from the Patea River. Added to this t'ranback, the Paten._ boats could only bring down comparatively small lots at a time, which would have to be stored till the amount was sufficient to warrant tho Homo boat loading it. Yet another disadvantage would be present ii< shipping butter from Patea—rough weather would now and again prevent the small steamers from navigating the bar, rr, getting sn f ely away, they may encounter had southerly weather rounding Terawlilti and be compelled to shelter under Kaniti or Mana; the ron-equent fiel avs affecting the • qualify of the butter and militating against regularity of Ih Home shipments, the great drawback of the- export butter trade.

Altogether, it is q«il>r> impossible that tho sea transit of butter by way of Pat o-i can ever Drove thoroughly successful. No doubt the South Taranaki dairy companies are supporting thp movement with the ohiect of effecting n saving in railage IP New Plymouth. If. however, the "Minister for Railways agrees to grant the Concession asked for h- Mr J.O. 11 ark ness, president pf l’,n> National Dairy Association —flint bn 1 ter should be carried at a universal rale, like fruit—t'-e difficulty of the cc , 'ip"u’e.4 in uue-;tlan will he removed, and there will no kui-m- exist any reason w'”- they should wilhhnld their Mi-r-’ort from the eo-oDprative eomnany which is to trkc ovei ’he ?ni‘i'*ee» of the Taranaki- freezing Works Conin'nv. It was by relying on the support. of all Taranaki d-ii'-yimr companies that th n rroirT.Vrs of tlie New Plymouth cn-opevct ->ve freezing works movement were i>.(- iced m' ke rrvingernents for taking over the Teran- ki Freezing Works e-> a ro-enera. live basis, Should Mr Wa-d see h:s wav to granting the seme concession to ftp butter industry a® is at present being granted to the fruit iudusIvy, no reason ’•ill exist why all dairymen in Tnrajirki. acting in their best interests, ."should not amalgamate in one er-mr-my, and thereby reap the additional reward of greater co-operation. Fur the sake of their own hank accnu"t and the reputation of the coj-o'n-’s produce.- it is to be hoped this will he rendered possible.