The Dairy Industry. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2623, 22 June 1904, Page 10

The Dairy Industry. TO THE EDITOR.

£ik,— -Your commenfe last weelo on the discussion that took placo at the recent mooting of the National Dairy Association on the question of proclaiming Timaru a grading porfc for dairy produce aro very fair, and yet are somewhat misleading. You i-ay that the fortnightly tleamers do nofc in the ordinary way call at Timaru, and that it would bo no use proclaiming this a grading port if tho steamers persistently refused to call. As a matter of business, there is no danger of them doing that : they will a-lwnys call az any safa port wli-ore cargo is to be shipped, and with three exceptions — the Corinthic, lonic, and the Athenic- — every Home-going steamer does call at Timaru for cargoes 'of meat or grain; then they often go on to Lyttelton, and tako on board, with other shipments, the butter that the South Canterbury Dairy Company is put to the expense of railing over 100 miles, with all its attendant risk?. During the past season this company put on board at Lyttelton nearly one-fourfch of its total' shipments into steame-is that had already called and loaded cargo at Timavu. This, you muse admit, is a, most wasteful ancfl unbusiness-liko proceeding, and if our company is compelled to continue- this method of shipping it will bo impossible, for it to pay so much for butter-fat, much loss pay its shareholders a dividend, as companies who can ship at a port in. their neighbourhood ; neither can vr& hojse to suoscssfully compete with such companies in the- Home market. At present tha quantity cf butter to be shipped from Timaru may not count much with the shipping companies, hut the industry is growing rapidly, and, together with the large quantity of meat which will be shipped by the two freezing works here, thero is no clanger of every facility not being had fey shipping butter or chees© from our own port. As to making Port; Chalmers the central port for the shipping of daiiy produce from the South Island, this would be even more inconvenient and expensive for us than sending to Lyttelton, owing to the greater distance and less suitable train seivioe, but it would no doubt suit the Olago and Southland factories.

As £o centralisation, I do not think we would hear anything of it if steamers called legularly at the Bluff and Port Chalmers on, Iheir way to the final port of departure. I have no fear but that the Agricultural Department will see the reasonableness of the South Canterbury Dairy Company's request, and grant it in tim-o for next shipping season. — I am, etc.,

R. H. Bowie.

Timaru, June 15,