THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9340, 3 February 1892, Page 2

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Mr J. Osborne, the senior partner of the firm of James Osborne and Co., produce brokers, Glasgow, who is visiting Australia with the object of arranging for direct consignments of dairy pro. duce from the colonies to Scotland, is at present in Dunedin, and a representative of this paper had a conversation with him yesterday afternoon. His Jinn have been handling a large quantity of butter and cheese from the colonies, which has been re-consigried through London—a process which has involved that the agents' commission at London as well as at Glasgow had to be paid; and Mr Osborne s desire, in which the producers in New Zealand will cordially,join, is that the fanner and ?-.. _ -^ _™-"et should be brought closer together. When the dairy produce trade from the colonies was opened up some five or six years ago, the butter that was shipped was, Mr Osborne states, of very poor quality and irregular, packed by the farmers, and difficult of sale; but since the introduction of the factory and separator systems the quality has been exceedingly fine, and the butter has found a regular market—especially in Scotland. Between the months of December and April there always will be a large consumption for colonial butter and cheese, for the reason that the seasons in Great Britain and its antipodes are reversed, so that the consumers in England get at that period of year grass-fed produce from the colonies, when they do not, and never can, obtain grass-fed from any other source. At the beginning of May the market receives American cheese, but from December to April there ig none obtainable from that source. As to butter, Mr Osborne points out that while about the month of February the Danish product, which is of very fine quality, the Danes thoroughly understanding farming, comes into the market, it is when all is said and done merely stall-fed butter, which never has the pure flavour that grass-fed has. The remark that he made with reference to the improvement in the quality of the colonial butter applies, Mr Osborne says, -.vith equal force to the cheese. The quality of New Zealand cheese is much appreciated in Scotland, and the large bulk of the consignments to England finds its way into Scotland. Mr Osborne accounts for this m some measure by the fact the makers of cheese, in New Zealand are mostly Scotch people, and that the quality of the article is consequently of the kind that people at Home are accustomed to. The demand, he says, is now for mild-flavoured, close-cutting cheese of straw colour, in packages of. from 60lb to 701b weight. With respect to prices, the value of Australian and New Zealand butter has gradually increased during the last year or two, partly owing to its improved quality and partly because the consumer at Home is beginning to realise that it is a good article. From December to April the price varies according to the season and supply, but it would always be safe to calculate upon 110s to 130s. The best prices are obtainable in December, January, and February, but they fall as the season advances when the Danish butter comes in, and when th_ London market is supplied with Jersey and French butter, which, however, is not to bo got in Scotland. The prices of cheese are more uncertain, but as a rule the finest New Zealand, such as he had previously, described, would from December to February be safe to bring, landed in Glasgow, from 50s to 60s according to quality-. Mr Osborne states that the quantity that his firm can take of butter—more especially during the months he had spoken of—is practically equal to the amount of refrigerated space they may get m the steamers. The question of distance, as he observes, is practically annihilated by the cool chambers, which enable butter and cheese to be landed, in Great Britain in pretty much the same condition as when shipped, while the freight does not greatly exceed that from the interior of America. The bills of lading of consignments would only need to be made to London, because re-shipment by steamer to Scotland can be effected at very small cost—6d to ls per cwt. Mr Osborne has seen in the colonies as fine machinery for the making of butter and cheese as he has seen in the world, and he has nothing but words of approval of the method adopted of packing in boxes. He expresses the belief that the trade in dairy produce will be an increasing one for the colonies, because, while large supplies of butter and cheese now are shipped from America and Canada into Great Britain, the population of the new world is growing so rapidly that the home consumption will become very great, whereas the productive power of New Zealand, on the other hand, is overrunning the population to a large degree, and as time goes on he believes that less and less American cheese may be expected. He thinks that New Zealand produce will then obtain itn opportunity, and take the place of the American.