A PURE SULK SUPPLY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2676, 28 June 1905, Page 6

A PURE SULK SUPPLY.

iN-the course of his speech at Winton Sir Joseph Ward referred to the fact, previously emphasised by several of the delegates at the annual meeting of the National Dairy Association, that- the value of the colony's export of butter and cheese had so increased of recent years that it now stands third in the list of exports, and promises in years to come not only to outstrip our frozen meat export but eventually to have the pride of place. Bearing this fact in mind, it is sufficiently obvious that in all legislation in connection with the dairy industry there is need for considering not only the requirements of the immediate present, but their bearings upon the future development of what promises to be the colony's most important industry. It is in this spirit that the valuable and instructive address upon butter and cheese making delivered by Mr Kinsella to the delegates attending the Dunedin Winter Show ought to be approached, especially seeing that this address embodies the expert knowledge which the Chief Dairy Commissioner's experience in this and other lands enables him to bring to bear tipon the subject. We may take it that, dismissing from his mind the somewhat unsatisfactory circumstances which led him to terminate his previous engagement with the Government, Mr Kinsella. has returned to the colony with a real determination to enable New Zealand dahymen to improve the quality of their butter and cheese ; but, reading between the

lines of liis address, it is evident that he despairs of any permanent improvement failing some radical alterations in the present system. Mr Kinsella remarked that he believed producers and factory managers would bear him out when he said that they -were too far away from the British market to make them satisfied with anything but a sound, well-keeping article in butter and cheese ; and the result of the grading competitions in the Winter Show is a revelation as to how far short even the leading factories in Otago and Southland come of anything approaching perfection in this respect. So serious was the deterioration, especially in some of the brands of butter exhibited, that Mr Kinsella. ] deemed it his duty to take the matter up with the factories particularly i concerned. The two chief causes of \ this deterioration are the impurity j of the milk supplied to the factories, and the absence of properly equipped experimental stations where the entire process of butter and cheese manufacture can be carried on under , the most approved conditions and ' upon the latest scientific principles, thus forming an object lesson to every dairyman and factory manager in the colony. And Mr Kinsella did not j hesitate to declare that unless some steps were speedily taken to furnish him with the means of carrying out { his plans in this direction his return to the colony will, so far as the dairy industry is concerned, be practically j of no avail. The establishment of j experimental stations is purely a question of ways and means. In response to a deputation which waited upon him. at Palmerston North, the Minister of Agriculture has, we note, expressed himself in favour of the establishment of r dairy school at Levin and of a technical school for dairymen at Palmerston. But while this suggestion may serve the purpose of the North Island Avell enough, it is equally necessary that adeauate "QXQ-

vision be made for llie South Island daii^men. In any case, Mr Duncan significantly added that nothing could be done until a sum of money was placed tipon the Estimates for the purpose, and thi.s has so often been promised in the past and never fulfilled that some amount of scepticism as to the bona fides of the Government in this connection is only to be expected. The question of improving the quality of the milk supply is fraught with considerable difficulties; but these difficulties are far from insuperable if Mr Kinsella's advice be only taken. At a gathering of dairymen in the North Island some months since Mr Gilruth gave it as his opinion that there was dirtier milking allowed in New Zealand than in any other country in the world, and he emphasised the anomaly that whilst the town milk, supplier is fined if convicted of adding a little water to the milk, the factory milk supplier can almost with impunity dissolve ounces of filth in the milk from which the butter and cheese for export have to be manufactured. Thus the ' possibility of improving the quality of the milk supply depends in the first instance upon the improvement of the condition of the cow byres so that milking may be carried on under conditions which will ensure a due meed of cleanliness. This, of course, brings up the/whole question of dairy inspection, concerning which there exists some difference of opinion- A.s Mr Kinsella pointed out, at present the attention of the inspectors is almost exclusively directed towards watching the standard of the city milk supply, and the objection has been advanced that the extension of inspection to the factory milk supplier would not only cause friction but would involve the dairy farmer in endless expense. At the outset Mr Kinsslla joins issue with those , who contend that the present inspectors could adequately carry out the duties indicated as necessary if any improvement is to be made and a. pure milk supply is to be assured, fie pleads for the appointment of a class of men who shall do for the dairy farmer what the instructors have done for the factory manager and the butter and cheese maker. He argues that it is impossible to expect that men alread} 7 burdened with the manifold duties of stock and rabbit inspection and the keeping down of noxious Aveeds, etc., etc., should acquire the expert knowledge requisite to qualify them to act as the guide, counsellor, and friend of the dairy farmer. He points out that although at the set the cheese and butter makers were inclined to regard the dairy instructors in tlie light of spies aoid interlopers, yet tact and discretion have won the day, until, without exception, the factory managers acknowledge their indebtedness to, and admiration for, the officials of the Dairy Department. What has been done for the factories Mr Kinsella aspires to do for the dairy farmer, and the experience of the past justifies us in the opinion, that he should be placed in a, position to carry out his ideas. Seeing that the dairying industry .is assuming such large, proportions, the Government might well consider the advisability of a rearrangement of the Agricultural Department, separating the dairy division and the veterinary branch and placing them under a responsible ' head. In this way the needed reforms: could doubtless be more efficiently carried out. We understand that Mr Kinsella's proposals will shortly be placed before the Cabinet for approval and sanction, and, in view of their importance and bearing in mind the fact that the future of the dairy industry so largely depends upon their acceptance, we express the hope that the Chief Dairy Commissioner will no longer ba hampered in his plans for the improvement of the quality of our butter and cheese.