Daily Circulation, 1500. The Oamaru Mail WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1887.

Oamaru Mail, Volume X, Issue 4096, 28 December 1887, Page 2

Daily Circulation, 1500. The Oamaru Mail WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1887.

The circular issued by the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company in reference to the dairy produce expor; trade between fr'ew Zealand and Great Britain is a valuable document. It contains jast the information that cur farmers require to guide them in the establishment of a trade that should prove high'y remunerative to- them. It is a universally accepted fact that, if farming operations are to be earried on to the greatest possible advantage in this country, dairying must be systematic and vigorous. Grain and sheep exclusively would never raise New Zealand to the position that the is designed to ocoipy as an agricultural country. Mixed farming only can do that, Agricultural experts have long siaoe demonstrated tbat it would be more advantageous in every way, if our farmers were to adopt the production of other things besides sheep as an alternative of grain growing. In this case variety should not only be charming but it should also be profitable. There will for some time to come be cases where sheepfarming must be the Eo'e occupation. That ie consequent on the natnre and situation of a large proportion of the lands of the colony. But, the future of the mat'on and wool industries is sot so promising as to indnce those who are in a position to utilise their soil in other remunerative ways to make tbem specialities. To the ordinary farmer, there is every inducement, with but one exception, to do otherwise. Amongst those inducements are the perpetuation of fertility and appropriate occupation for their families. The exception is the absence of facilities for disposing of the surplus of each commodities as butter and cheese. The production of these things has long since exceeded the local demand, and the surp'us has been exported chiefly to the sister colonies. But the export of butter has not been attended with encouraging results. The article has too often been bsdly made, and, to mike matters worse, the shipments to A ustralia have been tubjeoted to the cruoial ordeal of a climate in which butter is often reduced to the consistency of oil. That is the history of our butter industry. It would, therefore, be futile to attempt to realise satisfactory results under similar conditions, and to increase production now won d inly be to create an over-supily that would go to waste. Consumer* for any surplus we conld produce oould easily b fjund. Moreover, we could produce an article of such a quality that it would be greedily aonght after. A\\ that is wantei is care from begianing to end—from ohosing and feeding the eiws to placing the article in the pis ejsion of the consumers. The first, mentioned necessity rests entirely with the produoer—the rest the Loan and Mercantile Agenoy Company is endeavouring to b Ive. We hope that the Company's circular has been widely and oirefully read and we'l considered. It deals with a question that will sooner or later force itself on the attention of our farmers. We have just read an *ri iole in a recently-published issue of the Melbourne Argns that deals with this subject. It oomplains of the apathy of the Victorian farmer wfci;h occasions either a feast or a famine in the bntter market, with prices ranging during the year from 6 j to 2s per lb., whereas, with proper management, butter might be had all the year round, and might realise for the farmer Is per lb constantly, and be purchased by the consumer at 13d, or 13Jd, but for the rapacity of the middleman, who, as the writer says, naturally earns all he can for himself. The article also pointß out that if there were a systematic and continuous supply of good butter, the surplus would find a ready market at paying pricea at Home, and mentions the fact that recently a shipment of Victorian butter realised Is per lb in market. If all this be true cf Victoria, how much truer is it of New Zealand,