Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 2579, 19 August 1903, Page 11

THE NEW DAIRY COMISSIONER.

Mr Seddon has apparently taken, the management of the Dairying Department into his own hands. While Mr Duncan is dreaming cf educating experts in the colony, the Premier, it is understood, has actually engaged a Danish dairyman to fill the position of Daily Commissioner. We were firfct told that it was the intention of the Government to appoint two experts —one from Denmark and another from Canada; —but en fuller consideration that intention has been abandoned; and wisely so, for from such a system s af dual control as the suggested course implied nothing but confusion could result. But the Pre-! mier's appointment of a Danish ex23crt is net likely to be popular, for ! amcugst New Zealand dairymen it is | recognised that we have not much to ' learn from Denmark in the way cf i butter-making, and, indeed, the cir- ' cumstances of the two countries arc entirely different as regards the dairy industry. The marketing of Danish "butter is a question of days as compared with weeks in our case. It needs no great mental effort to understand that the manufacture of butter to meet the requirements of the different circumstances involves very different processes —a fact that Mr ,-Seddcn, in spite of the vast range of j his knowledge, appears to have overlocked. In the case of butter made for immediate marketing liberties may be taken with the manipulation of the product which would be fatal to its keeping qualities when it had to run the gauntlet of a long sea voyage. In no dairying country in tho world isi that fact more fully appreciated than in New Zealand. In Canada the value of a product possessing good keeping qualities is thoroughly understood, and in Siberia and the Argentine the same lesson •will have to be learned. Now, it is unlikely that a Danish expert will understand the true position of affairs until his arrival in the colony and until after he has had some experience of what is essential here. In short, we shall have to depend upon our factory managers for the most important part of the education of the imported Danish expert. Recognis-

ing that the future of the dairy industry depends almost exclusively .upon the manufacture of butter of excellent keeping quality, the late Dairy Commissioner, in season and out of season, endeavoured to impress upon all concerned* the importance of adopting np-tc-dato scientific dairy practice. Of recent years truly marvellous results have been attained in this colony, whose product now has very nearly touched first rank in the London market. On a previous occasion we showed that the difference in the market price between best New Zealand and best Danish butter is inconsiderable, and in spits of the disabilities under which our dairymen labour, New Zealand is quite able to hold its own against Denmark. The excellent keeping quality of best New Zealand butter has been put to the severest tost on many occasions with the utmost credit to the manufacturer. Six months after manufacture butter made for expert has been taken out of the freezer, defrosted, and graded anew by the Government graders, with th& result that the grade marks shewed a deterioration amounting to only a single point, and in some cases half a point. It has also come within our knowledge that a leading factory entered the same butter for competition at she- Dunedin winter show twice in succession, and notwithstanding the deteriorating agencies at work in refrcezin? and defrosting tho butter scored within a point of the original award of the show judge?. That is the kind of butter we require to manufacture, and it is in this particular that a Danish expert is calculated to fail. That the appointment is giving great dissatisfaction amongst the dairy factories we can quit? well understand, and we question very much whether the leading factories that have now an assured position on the London market will have anything to do with Mr Seddon's expert. Judging from the Premier's recent utterances at Palmerston North, it is evident that he has not grasped the true inwardness of the situation ; and his appointment of a Dairy Commissioner shows that he has ignored Ike advice of the National Dairy

Association, whose, expressed opinion ought to be considered in such a matter. In the face of the fact that we have better men trained in the colony than any expert we are likely to get in Denmark at the remuneration the Government is prepared to I offer, it seems absurd to import a 1 man who will ha.ye to learn from our own experts. The upshot will probably be that the best men at present in the service will leave at the first opportunity, and the colony will then 1 be in a worse, instead cf a better, position, because of the Premier's interference in a department concernJ ing which he displays such a want of 1 knowledge. Mr Seddon does not ' appreciate highly-trained experts, and has crprcssed the opinion that what we rather want is a host of Government dairy inspectors to teach the ! farmers' wives how to handle milk , and make butter — which means, if it I means anything, that a multiplicity of small dairies is to be preferred to a limited number of large, well-equipped factories ! From the point of view of providing employment to a host of Government beneficiaries, the idea is admirable; otherwise such utterances display a profound ignorance of the real needs of the dairy industry. New Zealand butter has made a name for itself in the London market, and one of the largest produce dealer?, who has been in the colony investigating en the spot, is quite satisfied with tho oxisting condition of things. In passing, we may mention that attempts are still being made to get behind the branding regulations upon which the Dairy Association, representing the producers of the colony, depends to ensure New Zealand butter being sold on its merits. The National Dairy Association of New Zealand has reaffirmed the position taken up two years ago in this matter, and still insists upon all butter entered for export bearing upon the boxes the distinctive brand of the factory at which it was made. It is significant that the Department has never gazetted the new regulations promised last year, on the recommendation of the late Dairy Commission r-r and the Dairy Association. But Uictp r.ro wheels within wheels, and^ if mem-

bers of the Cabinet are influenced by other considerations than the best interests of the producers, then jvc can understand the relaxation of the branding regulations; otherwise it is not easy to understand why the desire of the producers, as voiced by the National Dairy Association, is studiously ignored. It is especially exasperating to see a reign of muddledom introduced into on© of our chief industries, all because we have at the head of the Department a Minister of few ideas, and because of the irruption of the Premier into a domain that lies outside the range of even his varied experience.