COLONIAL BUTTER EXPORT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 8

COLONIAL BUTTER EXPORT.

The London correspondent of the Pastoralists' Review, in his letter dated January 6, writes : — From -the date of my last letter the butter market became -easier all round, large arrivals of both Australian and New Zealand! during the fiist fortnight in December helping the downward tendency of colonial butters. Buyers have now got accustomed to a shilling-a-pound butter, retail, consequently secondaries that will allow of the shopkeeper selling at this price have been in better demand than other sorts. All kinds of butter have shared in the depression, Danish, in Copenhagen, being lower by 4 kronei than it has been at this time of the year for over 30 years. Immediately before Christmas both foreign and colonial arrivals were below the average, yet quotations have been the lowest on record ifor this time of year. As to the imports into this country, spread over the whole year, the totals, as is welL known, ire ordinarily made iip from July to June. Taking, however, the figures as far as they relate to colonial butter, from January to the end of December, thii country received from Australia 23,760 tons. lompared with 5960 tons last year, and from New Zealand 14,620 tons, compared with 12,500 tons. Taking* the figures from the Ist July to 31st December last, the Australian butter import mto this country is 9111 tons, against 4984 ton=. last year; the New Zealand import was 2253 tons, against 3667 tons — a decrease of 1414 tons, the net increase from both sources being 2749 tons. Looking ahead (as early arrivals will alter the above totals), and taking the figures from Ist July to what they will be on 31st January net, we have Australia sending us 13.883 tons, against 9231 tons for the same period last year : New Zealand will have sent us 4573 tons, aeainsfc 5915 tons, a decrease of 1342 tons. The net total increase from bo(h Australia and New Zealand fiom Ist July tc 51st January will be 3310 tons.

Buttc-r, in common with all other kinds of refrigerated produce, has had a bad time of it, principally in *on.«equence of the fogs that have prevailed, From this cause there have been great delays in landing. But the foft has not been wholly answerable. The Victorian butter ex Ortnuz became available soon after tlio arrival of that vessel. But Now South "Wales people could not get their butlers, nor could those awaiting shipments from New Zealand ex Dclphio.

Delay in these instances lasted an appreciable time. But that was nothing to the inconvenience caused later by the fog, which stopped the unloading of the Ortona altogether. This ■\es*ol brought 22,741 boes from Melbourne, 11,518 boxes from Sydney and! 1040 boxes from Adelaide — a total of 35.299 boxes. She discharged about a third of the shipments, when the fog became so thick that further work was not possible. Five barge loads of the Ortona's butter lay in theriver all the week "receding Christmas Eve, while nothing 1 more could be taken out of the ship. The -uality of the butter coming from Australia during December has been variable, but New Zealand has been steady and uniform. The Ortona's butter was, perhaps, the best of the Australian, but the texture of that was not as satisfactory as waa that of the butters arriving earlier in the season, probably owing- to hotter weather prevailing at the- time of making. Large supplies which became available after the holiday? have been cleared away with surprising ro-n-iditv. The fact is, shopkeepers had sold pretty well everything in the shape of butter they had, and were compelled to come upon the market. Thus late and fog-delayed arrivals have gone into consumption, with a demand left over for -the Orizaba's the Tongariro's, and the China's butter, now being landed ; the second-named is Now Zealand and the others Au.«tral : an buter, and the feature this week is thf position taken b-<- second quality butter; it is, now 965, as against 98s, with an occaional 100s got for the best Victorian and New Zealand. Never before have trices of secondaries and best been so nearly equal ; the demand for the shillingr-a-pound article is responsible. Some retail tradesmen in thd middle- olass suburbs of London arc. in fact, now making a feature of New Zealand butter at lid a lb. As new season's New Zealand butter stands pre-ttv well at that figure wholesale, and has stood 7 at more .and as all old-stored butter from the colony named went into consumption long ago, what the butter now being retailed a<s above stated is would piopear problematical. One sw&g-estioii is that butter from some other colony, not df such reputation thoiisrli nossihlv as grood, is being- sold ; another i* that "retailers pro showing a tendency to describe all colonial hutte-r as "New Zealand." as butchers loner did in the oase of refrigerated mutton. Eve-n now "frozen mutton" and "New Zealand mutton" are convertible terms in the minds of the general pub l io. It> looks as if it is to be tihe 6ame with butter.