Butter Preserving. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 1903, 24 July 1890, Page 18

Butter Preserving. TO THE EDITOR.

g IBi _It is now 12 year» since I first drew attention, through the columns of tee Witness, to the faulty way In which butter was made and preservtd In New Zeshnd. Since that time there has been but few issues of the paper but someone hai had something to cay on the same subject. Have we made any improvement f I dou't think so. We certainly make more good or midling butter, but we al»o make more bad. Our shipments do not bring a good price. What is the reason ? Too much bad mixed with the good. Some advocate inspection as a euro for the evil. That might do some good, but what are we to do with all the bad left on hand here ? It is a downright shame, with the good climate and pure water that New Zealand is blessed with, that there should be such a lot of rubbleh put on the market. I ccc by a letter in last week's Witneßß, over the signature •'I. P. R.,"that a correspondent puts the blame on the long voyage of from 40 to 60 days. Now, six or seven and 20 years since we had to depend for our butter supply on Ireland, with ea.il-

ing vessels sometimes 100 and often > 120 days at sea, aud no cool oharobers, yet we got good butter — butter that was a credit to the country it oarae from. How will "I. F. R." reoonoile thiß with hs theory? I flay if butter is right made and properly packed, with the quick p usage and the improved storage on shipboard, it ought to land in London as good as the day it was put in the keg. It is all very well to talk about the chemical ohanges that take place in butter on the way to England, but why did not th': same ohanges take place in the butter shipped from Ireland to the colonies under more adverse circumstances ? I know that good butter can be made in New Zealand, but the few who are lucky enough to know how to make a flrstolass article oan command a price wbioh us storekeepers cannot give and get a profit on it. If New Zealand is to take the place it ought to In the dairying business, let some experts be brought from where butter is made fit for exportation. Let them bo reconrunendtd by-meu in the Home country who know their business, and not, as ia too often the case, 1 a politioal appointment by some Minister, who knows little or nothing of the duty required of their nominee —nominee in the same fix.— l am, &0. , Iv 21. S. M'd.

Cambrians, Jul