COMPLAINTS AS TO BUTTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2978, 12 April 1911, Page 38

COMPLAINTS AS TO BUTTER.

What has interested me more than anything else daring the last fortnight in my peregrinations or Too ley street is summed up m tiie one worn—quality. Trade has neon moving along wrui Uur freedom on the cheaper level to which it recently dropped. V\ T e have been told that not, dry weather has affected the quality of several biancus of New Zealand butter, but what is undoubtedly the most harmful complaint made against it is that of fishiness, which has been expressed in connection with the last few shipments, 'i'ne Kotorua’s butter has, as I write, been on tu© market nearly three days, and the first tidings 1 heard of it was that it wan believed that this trouble would be found much less apparent in this shipment. 1 am sorry to say that rny journey through shop and store has not confirmed this, as a matter of fact, it takes tome days after leaving the ship for toe butter to develop fishiness, bat tn.e tendency in a number of wth-knoivn makes is all too apparent in what i have tasted this morning. FISHINESS.

I expressed the hope at the first leading commission house I visited that the Kotorua showed improvement over her predecessors. The manager, with a frown, took me through samplings of a dozen weliknowii brands ho had. displayed in ms front shop, and I had cause to understand his dissatisfaction. He sent his man with me across the road to a cold store where there lay some butter —let its brand be nameless—of a previous shipment. Although ttio frost in this butter deadened its qualities on the palate, the fishiness in this sample was abhorrent, nothing’ less. RELIABILITY A NECESSITY.

It is disagreeable to have to tell New Zealanders that their butter is at fault, and especially so when the trouble is one the exact cause of which is beyond our ken. Doubtless, if all butter arriving could be disposed of within three days of its landing, very little of the outcry would be heard, but what market in the world is there that can invariably do this, and what reformer will slay the last speculative buyer on earth? The hold-overs in butter are all too heavy, and are giving their kind a bad name, but sort of thing on© alwavs has to face. New Zealand is still a name to conjure with, even in Tooloy street, and those whoso part it is to do so are strenuously urging the campaign in its favour. Rut tor New Zealand butter to be a distinct and highpriced line of itself, there must always, not only sometimes, be supplies of reliable quality to work upon; otherwise the stuff vanishes as “a line. The difference in London between Danish and New Zealanl ■butter is roughly 18s per cwt; this time last year it was only 10s. CANARDS. The exploitation of colonial butter —however unsuccessful it may appear to have been recently—is the subject of some stupid allegations made by a correspondent to a trade organ, the Grocer. .Signing himself “Provincial,” he shows jealousy of the great London market in declaring that a colonial clique there fixes prices, in secret conclave. Mr R. Ellison, in a reply this week, strenuously denies the charge, showing that, on the other hand, unseemly competition has forced Now Zealand butter far its intrinsic value. The system of selling butters and cheese by auction would, Mr Ellison says, be disastrous to the whole provision trade, and would only encourage the objectionable features the correspondent alleges now exist. To New Zealanders who get such mild rates cabled to them, this denial would almost seem superfluous; but it is evidently necessary, with such voice's raised.