ENGLISH DAIRY SHOW

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 18

ENGLISH DAIRY SHOW

NEW ZEALAND PRIZE TAKERS. LONDON, October 21. The following Dairy Show awards have been made : Salted butter—First prize, Taieri and Peninsula Company (Dunedin); very highly commended, Taieri and Peninsula Company (Oamaru). Unsalted butter—Bracketed first, Taieri and Peninsula Company (Dunedin) and Taieri and Peninsula Company (Oamaru). Cheese —First prize Tariki, second Kaupokonui, third Hawera, reserve Mangaramarama, commended Taratahi. Bacon —English commended, Taratahi. In bacon English sides took all three prizes, there being no colonial awards. The Commonwealth Government received a gold medal for their collection of produce. Professor Drummond, of Kilmarnock, who judged the cheese and unsalted butter, said that the butter had reached a good average standard, but the prize exhibits were of quite outstanding excellence, and as good as any he had inspected for a long time, the colour being bright and the texture close. The exhibits generally were attractively put up, and showed to marked advantage. The cheese exhibits were irregular, many being weak in body and deficient in flavour. The prize lots were very useful samples. The principal cause of the deficiency in quality had been the imperfect ripening of the milk,' causing weakness of the body. LONDON, October 23. Mr W. Oakey, of Bristol, who judged the salted butter at the Dairy Show, said that generally the flavour showed a great improvement on any previously judged. He was pleased to note the absence of fishiness, but the great majority of the exhibits were lacking in texture. This was largely due to putting in as much moisture as possible. CONGRATULATIONS. WELLINGTON, October 22. In the House of Representatives this afternoon the Prime Minister read a cable Bam which he had received from tho igh Commissioner stating that at the Is lington Dairy Show, in the class for colonial cheese, out of 24 entries Tariki secured first place, Kaupokonui secon 1, and Hawera third, while Taratahi was commended. In the colonial butter class (salted), out of 76 entries the Taieri and Peninsula Company (Dunedin) secured first, Dungog (N.S.W.) second, and Warwick (Queensland) third, while Taieri and Peninsula (Oamaru) was highly commended. In the unsalted class (73 entries) Taieri and Peninsula (Dunedin and Oamaru) were bracketed first, securing two silver medals. Downs (Queensland) secured second place and Denman third. In view of the fact that there had been so much talk in connection with the quality of New Zealand produce, said Air Massey, the fact that Now Zealand had been so successful should speedily re-establish the position of tho country. Sir Joseph Ward congratulated the country and the prize takers. The post tion, as disclosed by Mr Massey, demonstrated that our produce must be reckoned as amongst the best in the world. THE PRIZE EXHIBITS. Tho successes gained by the butter exhibits forwarded to the London Dairy Show by the Taieri and Peninsula Company have naturally proved a matter of great satisfaction to the directors and staff of tho company, and also no doubt to the people of Otago and the dominion generally. In conversation with a Daily Times reporter on the 25rd the general manager (Mr A. E. Bcissel) stated tli.it naturally they thought their wins at the London show were a very great achievement, more especially seeing that their butter exhibit** had to bo sent a distance of 14,000 miles to the show rooms. Then, again, the butter had to be made during the winter, when the dairy farmers had to feed their cows on turnips and other artificial fodder, and it was therefore hard to keep out bad flavours. The butter was shipped from Dunedin for Wel-t lington, where ;t was transhipped on to the Ruahine on August 14. It was, therefore, in cool storage for several months, and consequently was placed at a disadvantage as compared with ' exhibits from colonics closer to London “Our four exhibits,” continued Mr Bcissel, “ were brought into competition with no fewer than 145 other entries, and it will be thus seen that our wins in both the salted and unsalted classes were of very high merit indeed.” Mr Boissol said this was tho first time his company had exhibited makes of its butter so far afield, with the object of giving the outside markets an idea of the quality of its output. Tho company intends to exhibit at the Royal Society’s Show in Sydney, to lx- held in November. ‘‘ The biggest ambition of the company, however,” remarked Mr Bcissel, “is to win a prize at the Panama Exhibition, to be held at San Francisco in 1914 for this reason —that butter Anns all over the world will be exhibiting there. A win at this exhibition would bo a very great advertisement indeed, seeing that tho United States Sonate has reduced the tariff on imports of butter

from outside countries, and that the possibilities of ■' trade with tho States are now practically unlimited.” Mr Bcissel said, in conclusion, that the success of the' company would, no doubt, afford a keen personal satisfaction to the High Commissioner (the Hon. T. Mackenzie), who bad been associated for so Jong with all that concerned the advancement of the agricultural and dairying industries in New Zealand, and Otago particularly. CONGRATULATORY TELEGRAMS. The Prime Minister yesterday forwarded tho following telegram' to Mr Boissel:— “ Allow me to congratulate, the management and staff on the success attained by your exhibit, and to express my appreciation of the good work you are doing on behalf of the country and for the benefit of the enterprising settlers connected with the company.” Mr Turnbull, of Christchurch, representative in the dominion for Messrs Weddel and Co., wired as follows:—“Hearty congratulations. Success London must be beneficial your company and the colony.” Messrs Lovell and Christmas, the wellknown English produce merchants, cabled their congratulations, and concluded: “Have you any butter to dispose of?” Mr I). Cuddie, dairy commissioner for the dominion, telegraphed his congratulations, and a number of other wires, couched in similar strain, were also received.

MR SCOTT INTERVIEWED.

VALUABLE OPINIONS,

Asked for his views on the success of the Taieri and Peninsula butter at the London Dairy Show, Mr J. R. Scott, secretary of the South Island Dairy Association, spoke as follows:—“The success must be most satisfactory to the company, but only confirms the general opinion held in London for many years that Taieri and Peninsula butter cannot bo beaten for quality in New Zealand. And this has been proved again and again in many shows, both in tho North and South Island. It, therefore, behoves tho manager and directors of this great company to let nothing come in the way of maintaining its high reputation in these days, when new artificial methods are adopted—much to the detriment of pure butter quality. In the time to come only the highest class butter will escape competition with the ever-improving quality of margarine. High-class butter will escape this competition, but anything in the least secondary will, I fear, suffer badly as against margarine.” Mr Scott pointed out that Professor Drummond’s remarks on the butter shown were high praise indeed. As to the cheese classes, he said there was not any competing from the South Island. Mr Scott continued: “Although Professor Drummond’s remarks about the prize cheese —■ ‘ very useful samples ’ —were civil and complimentary, they were decidedly guarded and restrained, and his general statements about the exhibits of cheese were far from complimentary — 1 irregular, many weak in body and deficient in flavour,’ —but no doubt correct and in keeping with the reports received from London last season. The professor’s *remarks about the cause of these defects—‘ imperfect ripening of milk causing weakness in body’—will he understood by cheese-makers, but for us laymen wo can take it to mean that the quality of the milk Avas unsatisfactory.”