DOMINION CHEESE QUALITY

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1931, Page 10

DOMINION CHEESE QUALITY

WHY CANADIAN GETS A PREMIUM

DAIRY COMMISSONER’S ADDRESS.

The reasons for Canadian cheese commanding a better price than New Zealand produce were discussed by Mr. J. A. Ruddick, Canadian Dairy Commissioner, in an address to the Dairymen’s Association on Eastern Ontario. The use of milking .machines and pasteurisers, the race for yield and standardisation he considered to be contributing factors. He explained that he made the comparison only to prevent Canadian farmers from falling into the same errors.

■There was, of course, some reason for the premium, he said. It was partly due to the smaller quantity of Canadian cheese on the market, but it was mostly a tribute to the superiority of its quality and the fact that it possessed more of the real cheddar quality than the New Zealand article. That being so, it met the demand arising from the diminishing quantity of prime English and Scottish cheddars, which had always topped the market. Two years ago when he had made a somewhat similar comparison his New Zealand friends had been rather indignant, and he had received some rather vigorous protests. During . the interval, however, the facts of the situation had been brought home to them so forcibly that they were using much stronger language in discussing the matter then he had ever thought of using. The whole story was too long for his address, but ho would attempt to sketch the situation very briefly, his only reason for doing so being because it contained some lessons for Canadian cheesemakers.

■ “Tho defects complained of in New Zealand cheese are attributed to a number of factors,” Mr. Ruddick proceeded. “In the first place, the milking machine is extensively used in New Zealand. It would, in fact, have been quite impossible to have developed the industry to its present proportions, under the conditions prevailing in that country, without the use of the machine. Now, it is well recognised that machinedrawn milk is usually more seriously contaminated than hand-drawn milk. The machine may exclude the lactic acid organisms, but this gives the putrefactive germs, from the imperfectly sterilised tubes and other parts, all the better chance to develop and cause trouble. To overcome the bad flavours arising from this type of milk, the practice was introduced of pasteurising the milk for cheesemaking, and we are informed that over 80 per cent, of the milk is now so treated. It is claimed that the cheese from pasteurised milk has more or less neutral flavour, and such flavour as it does acquire seems to be slower in developing. “New Zealand cheesemakers, urged on by their directors, have overreached themselves too often by -increasing yield at the expense of quality. In otherwords, they have left too much moisture in their cheese. “Then, because the percentage of fat in New Zealand milk is high, on account of the large proportion of Jersey cows, some one conceived the idea that it would be permissible to remove part of this fat. The suggestion was adopted about two years ago and a regulation was passed providing for licensing of factories to make what is called, ‘standardised’ cheese —a cheese made from milk from which some fat has been removed, but which, must contain not less than 50 per cent, of fat in the dry matter. There seems to be a very serious objection to standardised cheese on tho London market, and it is now suggested that its manufacture should be no longer permitted. “Now, I have not made these comparisons to belittle New Zealand cheese, concluded the speaker. “My object is to warn Canadian cheesemakers against falling into the same errors. We must stick to our policy of producing the close, firm-bodied, clean flavoured cheese of the true cheddar type, which is the finest cheese in the world.” CATERING FOR SPORTSMEN. TROUT AND PHEASANTS RELEASED Over 11,000 trout have been released the Hawera Acclimatisation Society during the last few days. Pheasants have also been liberated, leaving only stock fish and birds at the hatcheries. Details of the trout liberations are:— Rainbow. —Robertson’s lakes (Ma.nawapou Road) 4000, Waingongoro River (along all reaches up to Forbes’ property and to Hauroto Road, in several sections) 4500, Okaiawa dams, 800, Duthie Road (Mr. F. R. Nicholas’ dam)250, Oeo dams, 300, Oeo, 300. Brown yearlings. —Taungatara stream, 400, Inaha river, 200, Oeo stream, 400. > _ PIHAMA DISTRICT NEWS. A very pleasant and successful evening was spent in the Piha i Hall on Thursday. At euchre Mrs. Penfold was the winner of the ladies’ prize and Mr. J. Thompson won the men’s prize. The supper was in the capable hands of Mesdames E. Harrop and C. A. Radford. The committee intend to hold another evening in about a fortnight’s time.

Mr. Ben Dickson is spending a few days in Auckland. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lambie, Tauranga, are spending a few weeks with their son ’on the Nopeta Road. Mrs. Jolley, who has been indisposed for several weeks, is well on the way to convalescence. HAWERA ENTERTAINMENTS. “THEDESERT SONG.” The largest setting ever built for a talking picture was constructed at the Warner Brps’. studio in Hollywood for “The Desert Song” coming to the Hawera Opera House this afternoon. The set is an exact duplicate of a location used by the company on the edge of the famous Death Valley in California, and it is impossible to tell where the studio setting is substituted for the desert location. The cast appearing in “The Desert Song ’ includes John Boles, Carlotta King, Louise Fazenda, Johnny Arthur, John Miljan, Myrna Loy, Marie Wells, Jack Pratt, Edward Martindel, Robert E. Guzman, Otto Hoffman, Del Elliott and others, and a chorus of one hundred voices.

In “Call of the Sea” showing to-night and finally to-morrow at the Grand Theatre, Hawera, there is plenty of spirited action, excellent acting, and lavish and effective settings. Henry Edwards is the dashing naval lieutenant, who clears the mystery of brother officers’ disappearance, and wins . his boyhood sweetheart, played by Chrissic White.