THE BATTLE OF THE BREEDS.

Southland Times, Issue 21577, 15 December 1931, Page 3

THE BATTLE OF THE BREEDS.

To the Editor. 1 owe your readers an apology for not replying earlier to Mr Kalaugher’s communication of November 26 in which he seeks to throw discredit upon my statement that the New Zealand Government when sending a consignment of cheese to the Wembley Exhibition gave the entire order to a family of well known Waikato Jersey breeders who manufacture cheese solely from the milk of their own high testing cattle. The delay has been occasioned by the fact that I have wired to the people concerned, Messrs A. Moreland and Sons, Hamilton, for a definite statement on the subject' This I have now received and for the benefit of your readers and especially of Mr Kalaugher, it is here set out as follows:— On April 3, 1925, the Dairy Produce Control Board placed an order with

Moreland and Sons for 1000 cheeses made from the milk of their high-testing pedigree herd, for special .exhibition at the Wembley Exhibition, almost immediately afterwards increasing the order to 2500. When the first lot of cheeses was delivered the Control Board requested that the order be increased to 5000, but owing to the lateness of the season, Messrs Moreland and Sons could only supply 2500. These cheeses were made during March and April, 1925, from milk testing G. 7 per cent (Mr Kalaugher please note) and they were placed on exhibition and sold on behalf of the Government with the idea of boosting the Dominion article, at the New Zealand pavilion at the Wembley Exhibition. A photo of these cheeses being sold at the rate of one a minute was reproduced shortly afterwards in the Auckland Weekly News. Now, Sir, this is a definite statement and in all seriousnss I call Mr Kalaugher to account for endeavouring to convey the impression that this cheese was not specially selected by the Government to boost our product on the London market. It is undoubtedly an unpalatable fact to him that cheese made from rich Jersey milk should be singled out as the best procurable for the purpose and I can only account for this gross mis-statement by his pardonable ignorance of the true position. Another point which should be driven home to Mr Kalaugher is that on his own statement the New Zealand Government selected for the Wembley Exhibition the previous year four large cheeses, each weighing about half a ton, manufactured by the Ngaire Dairy Company, Taranaki. To him, this is an exceedingly dangerous admission for the Ngaire factory supply consists almost entirely of Jersey milk testing 5 per cent, and over. Mr Kalaugher, realizing the futility of his proving his breed the best butter cow, is desperately endeavouring to establish her as the premier medium for cheese. If his claim is not based upon something more substantial than his exploded statements regarding Jersey cheese at the Wembley Exhibition he has set a very weak case before the dairy farmers of Southland.—l am, etc., W. A. ARCHER. Waikiwi, December 14, 1931.