VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1934, Page 7

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

VIEWS ON CURRENT TOPICS MH.K for cheese making. VALUE OF HIGH TEST PROVED. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Mr. W. R. Wright, in a letter in the . Daily News on October 30, in making reference to the cheese exhibited at a recent London dairy show, makes the following statement: “If any Auckland or Taranaki factory . had entered yellow’ milk cheese (by which I presume he means cheese manufactured from high testing Jersey cows) it would have gone down the chute like non-usable meat in the freezing works.” Considering that dairy farmers are having a levy made on their produce and a portion of such levy is used for advertising purposes it seems a pity that statements such as those made by Mr. Wright, which provide the substance for excellent. propaganda for our competitors, should be broadcast. For that reason I crave space in your widely-circulated and much-appreciated paper to reply to Mr. Wright. By making statements as quoted by Mr. Wright he is allowing his prejudice against Jersey cattle to run riot with his reason, and reveals woeful ignorance of the quality of cheese being manufactured from high-testing cows. For the information of Mr. Wright and any other persons who may not be conversant with the manufacture of cheese from hightesting Jersey milk I will quote from a report appearing In the Exporter of last September on the cheese exhibited at the two premier dairy shows of New Zea-: land—the Waikato winter show and the national dairy show: “Once again . the theory so often advanced that hightesting milk is not suitable for the manufacture of best quality cheese has been: definitely disproved by the experience r of the Westmere Dairy Company, which captured the lion’s share of the cheese awards at the two leading shows this season. At the Waikato winter show the Westmere Dairy Company’s manager secured the grand championship and the champion of champions award, his sue-: cesses including two championships, four firsts and one points prize. At the; national dairy show he secured two cups, the New Zealand cheese championship,, the George Woods’ memorial, the championship for Manawatu and West Coast, first for cheddar cheese coloured, first for white cheddar, first for medium cheese coloured and D. Dickie’s cash prize.” I would like to draw attention to the facts as stated by Mr. Dickson, who is the manager of the factory that put up such a wonderful performance.. “Tire milk from which the cheese was made,” he said, “tested 4.8 and later on the test went up to 5.6. Yet the cheese was still graded superfine.” In am interview Mr. Dickson stated that the results achieved from high-testing milk had exploded all his theories in regard to low-testing milk being the best for the manufacture of the highest grade cheese. Representatives of a breed society who were driectly interested in the sale and breeding of one abnormally low-testing breed of cows gave voluminous evidence before the recent Dairy Commission in an endeavour to prove that the hightesting Jersey cows were the prime cause of all our troubles in the manufacture of good marketable cheese. But they evidently made a severe slip when their evidence came to be analysed by a body of impartial men who had the full command of all the facts and phases relating to the manufacture of cheese at their disposal. The following paragraph copied from the Dairy Commission’s report will prove this: “Some witnesses, have attributed most of the defects in New Zealand cheese to the use of hightesting milk, but a comparison of cheeses made from high and low-testing milk' and produced under identical conditions disproves the contention. In particular it has been shown that finest grade cheese can be made from high-testing milk, and a study of our grading returns,, shows that there is no'definite connection. between the test of milk and the grade of cheese made.” Further comment would be superfluous.—l am, etc., H. A. HUNT. Stratford, Nov. 4. BAN ON BEEF AND VEAL. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Mr. C. A. Wilkinson is to be commendecLfor his investigations regarding the lifting of the ban on beef and veal. The embargo was placed on these classes of meat, and farmers had to sell at gift prices. Then the. embargo was raised. One presumes that the carcases purchased from farmers at gift prices were rtot sold by the firms at gift prices. This is not right. Perhaps an Order-in-Council might .be arranged placing a tax < on; export companies to. make up the loss caused to the farmers when the embargo spoiled their prices.—l am, etc., EQUITY. Eltham, Nov. 6. MATAU ROADING. (To the Editor.) Sir,—There is quite a rush for the Daily News xae days, all settlers looking for the letters regarding the metalling of the Matau Road. E. McCoard tells us he has been surprised to see so many letters on this question. I take it he means so many in favour of the metalling of the Junction: Road. If we argue much further on this question, we will all think the same as Cr. Rawlinson—the settlers to metal the sideroads and the Government to metal the Junction Road. E. McCoard has already brought the mileage Up to 10 miles. Before it was five miles to complete our loan proposals. .... If we are going to talk so “big” and make-it 10 miles, why not add another three miles to it and metal the Purangi Saddle? That would bring in four more settlers living on the Purangi side of the saddle, who -are in this riding and have aS much right to’a metalled road to Stratford as we have. We would then all have metalled access not only to Stratford, but to Inglewood, New Plymouth, and also Whangamomo'na, for we have no need to worry about the i four miles of the Junction Road, which is in the Whangamomona riding. They will soon get that metalled once we get the stretch through Matau done, which is not IL miles as made out, but only -seven or eight miles. E. McCoard mentions that David Kemp has only one. road in view, the rfiad he was bogged on. The same thing applies to E. McCoard, who wants only one way to Stratford. Between ‘3O and 40 years ago the pioneer j of this (district in time of sickness took the road through to Inglewood, and didn’t have cars to travel in, either. They only had horseback. But they didn’t growl,-how-ever long it took them; they just made the best of it. We can all make suggestions as regards the roa'; best metalled in the district, but unless we can back them with some £ s. d. they are not much good and do not get us any further. There is no oik would be more pleased than Cr. Rawlinson to get metal to every settler’s gate, but until such times as the Junction Road is metalled this cannot be, and Matau can only be like, a bird with one wing.— l am, etc.; ' 1 DISGUSTED. Matau, Nov. 7. ' '