STANDARDISED CHEESE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21163, 22 October 1930, Page 7

STANDARDISED CHEESE.

MR PARLANE’S DEFENCE. MR IORNS’S STATEMENT CRITICISED. (Peb United Press Association, i HAMILTON, October 21. Interviewed to-day with reference to the statement made by Mr W. A. Irons (chairman of the Dairy Produce Control Board) to the effect that al] English agents handling the produce of Parlane’a company had repeatedly pointed out to him when he was Home the detrimental effect of standardisation on the New Zealand cheddar cheese trade, Mr Parlane said it was evident that the information received in London by Mr Irons was Quite different from the information received by his company. The speaker was quite well aware that certain interests in London were doing their best to discredit standardised cheese, and it was very regrettable to note that these people apparently had the backing of Mr lorns. Howeyer, in order that the producers should have the fullest possible information to enable them to come to a definite decision in regard to this very important matter, he would ask Mr lorns to publish the names of the firms who had reported adversely on standardised cheese, and at the same time to publish the weekly price quotations of these same firms for standardised and full cream cheese during the past 12 months. If for any special reason Mr loms was unable to publish the names of the firms then there could be no reason why he should not publish the price quotations asked for, more especially as these were easily obtainable at the Dairy Board’s office in Wellington. With this information before them the producers would then be in a position to decide whether the standardisation of milk for cheese making had proved profitable or otherwise.

“ I do not for one moment claim,” said Mr Parlane, “that the quality of our cheese, either full cream or standardised, is all- that we desire it to be, but this is no reason why standardised cheese should be made the scapegoat.’ Mr Toms must be well aware that for some years past at leading dairy shows throughout New Zealand there have been quite a number of instances where standardised milk cheese has carried off- the honours in competition with full cream cheese, which is conclusive proof that it is not of an inferior quality. Indeed, Mr lorns himself in an unguarded moment at his Hawera ‘meeting’ let the cat out of the bag when he said, ‘When Mr W. M. Singleton, director of the division, was in Britain the retailers did not know standardised cheese was being made in New Zealand, and that accounted for a lot.’ It would appear pertinent to ask Mr lorns why the agents at Home required to know that standardised cheese was being produced in New Zealand before they could comment on the quality of the standardised article. Mr lorns has told ns quite a lot of what the agents told him in London, and in view of, recent statements made by him the industry would probably be interested to learn what Mr lorns said to the agents. If his statements in London were in line with the statement he is credited with having made at the Hawera meeting when speaking of standardised cheese, that ‘ unless you sent cheese that contains something else beyond water we will never get anywhere,’ which, of course, is uttir rubbish, then his trip to London will prove to have been a very costly proposition to the cheese producers in this country,” concluded Mr Parlane.