THE HAWERA TESTS

Southland Times, Issue 20538, 14 July 1928, Page 3

THE HAWERA TESTS

To the Editor. Sir, —In your issue of July 7 a correspondent under the pen-name of “Arewah” takes exception to some of my statements published in your columns recently. To l}egin with just let me state that I have no intention to carry on a newspaper controversy with any one who fights under a nom-de-plume—too many of their arguments will not bear scrutiny, and if a man is not ashamed of the breed he espouses let him come out into the open and sign his name. Like “Arewah” too I intend to review Mr Veale’s report when it comes to hand. My present copy was sent to me by Mr Kalaugher, for which I thank him; but it is not the official one. “Arewah” goes on to state that some of my statements are not quite correct in stating that the Jersey herd selected was not representative of the breed—well I have the report of the Jersey Breeders’ Association when it was proposed that they should contribute £2OO towards the expenses and it was stated there that they objected to the herd chosen, and I don’t think that Mr Batten owns a pedigree Jersey; what is more he is not even a member of the N.Z.J.B. Association. The point that I wished to draw your attention to was the fact that the Friesian Association picked their herd (practically a pedigree one), the Ayrshire Association picked a pedigree herd, but any body (certainly not the N.Z.J.B. Association) picked the Jersey herd. “Arewah” states that I cast an aspersion on the laboratory regarding turning out cheese below the legal standard of fat. Let me state that no aspersion was intended. What I wished to stress was the fact that illegal cheese was made on several occasions by a laboratory with all the latest instruments for testing same and yet this illegal cheese was allowed to be exported. It matters little to me whether the officials at Hawera or Patea were to blame; the fact remains that this illegal cheese deficient in fat and waterlogged with moisture is held up to us as a true test of high versus low-testing milk. Had the graders carried out their duties to the full letter of the law—and this was a test of vital importance to all breeds—where would the low-testing cheese have gone to? Certainly not for export; and if sold locally for human consumption the Health Authorities would have been hot on its trail as they were with the widow woman and the returned soldier over their butter.

“Arewah” states that the Jersey milk actually fell below the legal standard once, the Friesian 15 times and the Ayrshire 30 times; and as he states that the lowest test of the Jersey milk was 3.9 why should it have made an illegal cheese. Surely any Southland factory manager could have made legal cheese with milk of that quality. Your special reporter only reported 7 crates second grade cheese and that all from the Ayrshire milk, but “Arewah” puts the cheesemaker’s pot on when he states that there was 36 crates from all the breeds combined actually 5.04 per cent, of the total output. How long would a factory manager last in Southland who had a similar record? What is more, 50 per cent, of the total was classed as second grade when it was examined at Home. Can “Arewah” honestly state that the above record is a fair one on which to judge the merits or demerits of a breed? “Arewah” has to admit that the N.Z. graders favoured the high testing cheese and graded it accordingly. Even the London graders preferred that high testing cheese, describing the low-testing cheese as “body weak and pasty” and at other times “body harsh and mealy.” On the other hand the only fault found with the Jersey cheese was that it was greasy. This last and practically only fault—greasiness—is easily remedied and that by the cheesemaker. Let him skim down to a legal standard and then the factories in Taranaki and for that part any part of New Zealand where factories have any quantity of high testing milk will be able to pay out the whole of the price they receive for their cheese and run the whole of the expenses of manufacture —labour, coal, timber, etc., out of the extra butter manufactured, and I’m quite sure that the Jersey farmers will be the last to complain that they are not getting a square deal. Mr Veale’s contention that we should lower the standard for export and keep lower testing cattle will undo the work of a lifetime and ruin our export trade in cheese. Finally, in the whole of Mr Veale’s report we are not told how many pounds of

milk of either breed it took to make one pound of cheese. That is of vital importance to the high testing milk as the matter of labour nowadays bulks largely in the factory costs. Just let me state a case to illustrate my point—The last vat of milk made into cheese at the Menzies Ferry dairy factory, viz., 850 gallons, made thirteen eighty-pound cheeses, or a yield of 8.171bs of milk to one pound of cheese on a test of 4.3. At ordinary times with an average test of 3.6 it would take the same vat busy to make nine cheeses. And here we have four extra cheeses for the same labour. What would it amount to in the course of a season?—l am, etc., ROBERT GIBB. Menzies Ferry.