The Dairy Industry.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6751, 4 February 1892, Page 2

The Dairy Industry.

. (Otago Daily Times ) ; Mr J. Osborne, the senior partner of the firm of James Osborne and 00., produce I brokers, Glasgow, who is visiting Australia with the object of arranging for direct con--1 signments of dairy produce from the col nios , to Scotland, is at present in Dunedin, and a ] representative of this paper bad a converse* tion with him yesterday afternoon. His firm ’ have been handling a large quantity of butter I and obeese from the colonies, which has been i re consigned through London a process , which has involved that the agents’ commission at London os well ns at Glasgow bad to ' be paid ; and Mr Osborne’s desire, in which the producers in Hew Zealand will cordially . join, is that the farmer and his market should be brought closer together. When the dairy produce trade from the colonies was opened ' up some five or six years ago, the butter that i was shipped was, Mr Osborne states, of very r poor quality and irregular, packed by the | farmers, and difficult of sale; but since the in trod acton of the factory and separator ' systems the quality has been exceedingly fine, i and tbe butter has found a regular market—especially in Scotland. Between the months of December and April there always will be a large consumption for colonial butter and cheese, for (he reason that the seasons in Great Britain and its antipodes are reversed, so that the consumers in England get at that period of year grass-fed produce from tbe colonies, when they do not, and never can, obtain grass fed from any other source. At the beginning of May the market receives American cheese, but from December to April there is none obtainable from that source. As to butter, Mr Osborne points out that while about tbe month of February the Danish product, which is of very fine quality, the Danes thoroughly understanding farming, comes into the market, it is when all is said and done merely stall-fed butter, which never has tbe pure flavour that grass-fed has. The

remark which he made with reference to the improvement in the quality of the colonial butter applies, Mr Osborne says, with equal force to the cheese. The quality of New Zealand cheese is much appreciated in Scotland, and the large bulk of the consignments to England finds its way into Scotland, Mr Osborne accounts for this in some measure by the fact that the makers of obeese in Now Zealand are mostly Scotch people, and that tbe quality of the article is consequently of the kind that people at Home are accustomed to. The demand, he says, is now for mild-flavoured, close cutting cheese of straw colour, in packages of from 601 b to 70ib weight. With respect to prices, the value of Australian and New Zealand butter has gradually increased during the last year or two, partly owing to its improved quality and partly because the consumer ac Homo is beginning to realise that it is a good article. From December to April the price varies according to the season and supply, but it would always be safe to calculate upon 110 s to 130 s. 'ihe best prices are obtainable in December, January, and February, but they fall as the season advances when the Danish bu'ter comes in, and when the London market is supplied with Jer;ey and French butter, which, however, is not to be got in Scotland. The prices of cheese are more uncertain, but as a rule (he fine.-t New Zealand, such as ho had previously described, would from December to February be safe to briog.landed in G 1 >sgow, from 60s to 60s according to quality. Mr Osborne slates that the quantity that bis firm can take of butter-more especially during tbe months he had spoken of—i 9 practically equal to the amount of refrigerated space they may get in the steamers. The question of distance, as be observes, is practically annihilated by the cool chambers, which enable butter and cheese to be landed in Great Britian in much the same condition as when shipped, while the freight does not greatly exceed that from the interior of America. The bills of lading of consignments would only need to bo made in l London, because re-shipment by steamer

to Scotland can be effected at very small cost—6d to Is per cwt. Mr Osborne has seen in the colonies as fine machinery for making butter end cheese as ho has seen in the world, and he has nothing but words of spproval of the method adopted of packing in boxes. He expresses the belief that the trade in dairy produce will be an inoieasing one for the colonies, because, while large supplies of butter and cheese now are shipped from America and Canada into Great Britain, the population of the new world is growing so rapidly that the home consumption will become very great, whereas the productive power of New Zealand, on the other band, is over running the population to a large degree, and as time goes on he believes that less and less American cheese may bo expected. He thinks that New Zeeland produce will then obtain its opportunity, and lake the place of the American.