SUGAR OF MILK.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 252, 27 November 1914, Page 9

SUGAR OF MILK.

•' A NEW INDUSTRY. Edeiidale is the home of dairying in the South, island, one might say New Zealand. It was Here' that the late Mr Brydone did so much to foster the cheese industry., until it has assumed the position of being the leading line of our dairy exports." Edendale is now the scene of the establishment of another industry in, embryo which promises to develop wherever the dairy industry is carried on. This is the manufacture of milk sugar from the whey of cheese factories. Milk sugar has many uses in the drug trade, but its use has become universal in the preparation of food for infants and invalids. Two thousand tons of it are annually used in Britain, and only 2 ?per cent, of it is manufactured in the United Kingdom. Germany has had practically a monopoly of the milk sugar trade, and it is a peculiarly fitting time for the Dominion to launch "into this business. . At hundreds of dairy factories in New Zealand the whey is turned down the waste pipe, as it is by itself a somewhat unsatisfactory pig food, and the price of grain in recent years has been rather high for much cereals to be added, sufficient to make a well-balanced ration.

A company was promoted Home time ago, which has now commenced operations at Edeudale. The plant installed is the most up-to-date procurable, and the product turned out is a snow-white sugar that is quite equal to the imported article, and passes easily the stringent tests of the chemists. Mr W. Barnett, of Christchurch, is interested in the venture, and with Mr J. G. Neil, of Jas. Neil, Ltd., of Dunedin, was responsible for the organisation of the undertaking; and, owing to the difficulty of securing a properly qualified chemist to supervise the business, Mr Neil, with Mr Barnett 's assistance, itTtmdertaking the chemical side of mamtfacturing this new product of the Dominion for the first season. The works are ! capable of turning out 1$ tons per day, and the whey from the group of factories round about Edendale has been secured. Three per cent, of whey is milk sugar, and about 2$ per cent, can easily be extracted; This young industry has great possibilities. The long hours and arduous work of dairying necessitate the utmost being made out of the product of the dairy, so it is pleasing to record a new avenue for the utilisation of the by-products. The tariff admits the introduction of milk sugar duty free, but if the industry becomes at all widespread, the Government will no doubt afford it some measure of protection, as lias been done with various other manufactures. The dairying division of the Department of Agriculture, recognising that this venture is fraught with possibilities, has rendered every assistance possible in the establishment of the works.