NEW ZEALAND BUTTER

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11046, 1 November 1921, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER

WHERE DOES IT CO ? NEW ZEALANDER’S VAIN-SEARCH IN ENGLAND. MR W. T. JENNINGS’S VIEWS. To a correspondent of the “New Zealand Times” at Auckland, Mr W. T. Jennings, member for Waitomo, who has just returned from a round-the-world tour, expressed his astonishment at the apparent absence of New Zealand butter from the market’s wholesale stores and shops of England. The music-hall problem of “Where do the flies go in winter time?” isn’t a bit harder than the whereabouts of New Zealand butter once it is taken out of the box in London. “One of my visits when in England was to Manchester, .where I was the guest of the great Manchester Cooperative Association,” said Mr W. T. Jennings. “This concern deals with 3,000,000 people, and to give you 6ome idea of the size of its buildings I may mention that I was invited to dinner, where there were 900 people sitting down to that meal. I made some inquiries about New Zealand produce, particularly butter, and was surprised to hear that there were 500,000 boxes of New Zealand butter still being held by the British Government. That was last August. Butter was badly wanted by the people at the time, and it did seem strange to me that the New Zealand butter was not put on the market instead of being held in store. It was hound to deteriorate, and there was also the loss to the British taxpayer of the interest in keeping so much capital locked up. ' ““whether the Government was afraid of hurting the' susceptibilities of the Home farmers and the merchants who deal in Danish better, I cannot say. I have reason to believe that the experts advising the British Government told them to sell. The whole butter business is rather difficult to understand, and one of the hardest things in England is to get New Zealand butter sold as suoh. What becomes of it I don’t know. v nu will see Danish butter advertised freely in the shops, but it is very rarely one sees New Zealand butter advertised as it should be. I made some inquiries, and was informed by one man that there was a suspicion that New Zealand butter, which is admittedly one of the highest quality, was used to flavour up some of the .inferior grades. “If that is the case, it would appear that a great injustice is bring done to the Dominion. and .injury to the product of an important industry, while the. people of England are being unfairly treated. It is a matter that should, 5n the interests of New Zealand, be closely inquired into.”