NEW ZEALAND BUTTER FOR SOUTH AFRICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2501, 19 February 1902, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER FOR SOUTH AFRICA.

It is high time the dishonest practices indulged in by Australian merchants who handle New Zealand butter for export to South Africa were exposed, for dishonest practices undoubtedly they are, and if these people are aided and abetted by New Zealand traders, as Mr J. R. Scott, who contributes a letter on the subject in our issue of yesterday, alleges, the sooner =uch misrepresentation is made impossible the better. It bears a close resemblance to practices that have been adjudged fraudulent in connection with the frozen meat trade in -English law courts, where the offenders have been subjected to pretty severe fines for their fraud in celling inferior meat from other countries as New Zealand, after having removed the distinguishing brand 8 . The latest dodge is being resorted to in Australia in order to capture the Cape trade ; but in this case our superior butter is sent to South Africa duly branded as Australian. Australian factories are not equal to the demand, so that New Zealand has to be exploited to make up the shipments required, and but for the protection of the Government brand we would have the chagrin of seeing the bulk of our butter trade going through Australian hands to South Africa dishonestly passed off as the product of Australia. Notwithstanding the cabled refutation of the Premier's accusation, Mr Scott declares that Sydney merchants are guilty of the same dishonest practices that Melbourne merchants make no scruples about. The proof Mr Scott supplies ia ojie of tike stencil plates m-

tended to mark our butter as Australian after erasure of the Government brand, and a letter from a firm in a large way of bushier i>\ fc?vdnoy ui> bkiL-hingly a-kiug that the «tencil plate be used for the purpo-e. The practice has been, it seem-, for the astute Australian dealers to i»^k merchants and manufacturer; 10 have the butler put up iv square hose*- .similar to thc-e u c ed in Australia, in coutra-di'-tinctioii to the New Zealand oblong box, and if, a^ Mr Scott says, some of our leading factories have actually complied, it is time such practices were made illegal in New Zealand, if they arc not so at the present moment. The reque-t to erase the Gov<?riim.<jnt brand and grade niark=, fortunately, cannot be complied with,, but if the butler L packed iv square boxes the erasure is an easy matter in Melbourne or Sydney. The loose appreciation of the: morale of the practice held by some Nevr Zealand people is to be deplored, for not only are they encouraging a system, of misrepresentation that at least borders on fraud, but they are at the same time jeopardising the future of our produce trade to youth Africa. It i- a pcrniy-wiSe-poum}-foolish, temporising policy at be-l, and those merchant* who would reap an immediate gain at the expense of the future are short-sighted mortals indeed. We cordiany agree with our correspondent, who at least knows what he is writing. about, that the New Zealand type of oblong box with deep fire brand should be insisted upon, and no butter entered for export should be allowed to leave our shores iv any other package, with the single exception of tinned butter. We <.lo not know whether representations to the Commonwealth Government would result in prohibiting the dishonest procedure in Australia ; but at any rate Australian merchants would be put to the trouble of re-boxing if the oblong box is made compulsory in New Zealand. As the Commonwealth has promulgated a kind of Australian Monroe doctrine—.'' Australia -for the Australians " — it i> really too bad of her merchants to sail under fabe colours by branding New Zealand butter as Australian, in order to deceive the good people at the Cape. The fact that New Zealand now takes the lead in the quality of dairy produce ought to be made as widely known a^ possible throughout South Africa, and ako that Australia only corner in a '-ort of middling second. But all that, we might say, i<- a mere beating about the bush until the direct subsidised line of steamers between this colony and the principal South African ports is an accomplished fact. Then, and not till then, shall we be in a position to push our produce trade on its merits, without the dubious assistance of Australian merchants. And in connection with the produce and frozen meat trades, we are pleased to note that Mr Scott supports our view, expressed in this column no later than la«t Friday, that cold stores at the distributing end are. indispensable, otherwise we shall be at the mercy of the big trading concerns that own the cold stores at the leading South African port=;. We cannot understand upon what grounds Mr Gow has reported adversely on the Government proposal to spend £50,000 on the erection of cold stores unless there are wheels within wheels, the running of which is not as yet apparent. The empty Treasury chest is surely not the cause, and surely the Trade Commissioner's report has not been, insnned from hiah quarters ! At

any rate the conditions in South Africa ruling the meat and produce trades are fairly well known here, and most people who have looked into the matter at all consider cold stores at the receiving ports a sine qua non of the trade from New Zealand. If we are to remain content with the present method of sending our produce through Australian middlemen, the case may present a different view : but we mistake the character of the people of this colony if they for long consent to play seennd fiddle to Australia in a tune in which we at least excel.