THE CHEESE INDUSTRY

Southland Times, Issue 23166, 6 April 1937, Page 5

THE CHEESE INDUSTRY

To The Editor Sir, —The question of a suitable and satisfactory premium for cheese as against butter is again exercising the minds of those engaged in the management of the cheese industry. The l|d differential price of the past season has proved insufficient to retain the supply to cheese companies partly on account of labour difficulties on the farm and the better feeding value of the by-product (skim-milk) for pigs, calves, poultry, etc., or alternately for casein manufacture, which, with butter gives a considerably higher return to the supplier than will cheese with its annually falling yield. Our cheese exports are worth many millions of pounds sterling annually and any shrinking of supplies will be immediately taken advantage of by other countries who will be difficult and costly to displace when once established on our one and only market— Britain. A feature of casein manufacture is that it takes approximately- half the number of hands in the factory that the same supply of milk would need for cheese making, thereby throwing many cheese makers out of employment. Is it the intention of the powers that be to put the cheese industry of this country on a sound basis by paying attention to the supply of raw material, i.e., the milk supply, or to attempt to bolster up an unsatisfactory position by higher premiums. Recently the Arapuni power supply was the subject of a commission of inquiry with a view to rectifying faults which had developed, and no time was lost in getting expert advice from the other side of the globe and that advice has proved successful. Arapuni is as a drop in a bucket compared to the possibilities of our cheese industry. Would it not .be wise to have a commission of inquiry into the whole matter to report to the Government of this country?—Yours, etc. OUTLOOK. April 3, 1937.