THE WAY TO RECOVERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1930, Page 6

THE WAY TO RECOVERY.

Those who knew the nature of the reports sent by Mr. AV. A. lorns, chairman of the Dairy Control Board, from London to his colleagues hero would feel no surprise at the recommendation he has made to the cheese manufacturers of the Dominion. Mr. lorns advises the abandonment of “standardised” cheese and the prohibition of its export. He gives as the objection of the British trade to the standardised commodity. Mr. lorns does not take up the question of whether or not the quality of standardised is as good as of whole cream cheese; he justifies his advice on the ground that after trying it for a season the British merchant will not buy standardised cheese except as a secondrate article at a second-rate price. Obviously it is absurd for the industry here to make a penny a pound more out of butter-fat available through standardisation and to lose three times a- much at the other end in the lower price obtained for the cheese exported. Nor is this the only ill effect of supplying an article that is, not approved. To do so is to repeat in its worst form the failing for which British manufacturers have been so often criticised in this country. They are accused of sending goods and machinery that are unsuitable for the New Zealand market, thereby affording the foreigner who is prepared to study local needs and desires the opportunity of obtaining trade that should be British. In sending a commodity, especially an article that the British consumer dislikes New Zealand is simply driving custom to rivals for the market in Great Britain. They are not slow to seize the opportunity. Already, the; Baltic States, with whom rivalry in the butter market is quite a serious factor in the disposal of the Dominion’s output, are studying in' England; the cheesemaking methods in operation there. Finland and Latvia have the example of. Denmark before thbm. They have a' climate at least as good as the Danish, and they have a considerably larger area of land that may be turned into dairy farms. ..They are learning from England the kind of cheese the consumer desires, and if they succeed in, manufacturings it New Zealand cheese will have another very formidable, rival, that has the advantage of being only a few days away from the London market. The argument for the abandonment of standardisation seems difficult to refute. It is certainly the duty of those who desire it to continue to show without delay how their' wishes can be carried out without inflicting irreparable damage upon the deputation of . New Zealand cheede in the British market. '