ON BUTTER FACTORIES AND BUTTER IN GENERAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 7167, 10 September 1886, Page 2

ON BUTTER FACTORIES AND BUTTER IN GENERAL.

TO THE EDITOR. i Sir, — Can you inform me, what I am puzzled to account for, the difference in the price of buttcf ia.Taranaki and Sydney, viz , 2s. to 2s. 4d. per lb. in Sydney, while here the buyers will give but 9d. for the .best and choicest ? I have made butter in Devonshire which always fetched the top price. -1 have also made choice butter here, equal to any turned out at Home, but I suppose it is owing to the custom in the Colonies of having to deal ' with the [ middleman, who tells us he does not gain i by buying butter, but, on the contrary, iB I a loser. ' Can you solve mo thai puzzle? [ Now, as regards the Moa Dairy Factory, I was induced to take up share?, partly [ through a shareholder telling me they would be sure to get not less than Is. per lb. to send it Home, I knew i could not supply milk to th* factory, as the road to my place prevented it; but judge of my surprise when I heard they had sold the butter here for Bd. per lb., insteadof doin* as some private daiiymen do — send it off to Sydney and get Is. 4d. and Is. 61. clear of all expenses. Will we bo gainers in Taranaki if we start factories and dispose of tho butter to local dealers ? I think not. I believß in factories if carried on iv a proper and economical way; but I do not thiak it eeonojjy to piso a manager exorbitant wage?, as I think was done with the late manager of Lite Mou Factory. Why, sir, there ore hundreds, 1- believe, of fanners who would- only bo too glad to leave their farms for a situation of £2 per week, without loss. 1 have heard that the manager's Eitlary was.ne'aily £4 per week. If that is correct no wonder the concern did not pay. From the first I was in favor q£ gcttiug a competent man direct from Denmaik; than our sons and daughters could go and learn the moat approved methods of butter-making: Tho factory 8) utem will bo a direct boon to the struggling farmer?, of whom I am sure there must be some hundreds who can barely make endß meet. We bhall then be able to go to the cheapest market for provisions, Hour, &3., und could purcluso Hour at 265. the cwt. cash, where wo now havo to give the purchaser of our butter 30s. i 1 should like, to say. Bomathing more on ! British slaver), but will retrain for tho present. Trusting somo abler pen will tollow the s«bj<3ct up,— l am, &0,, Lucy. [We may inform our correspondent that the butter buying business is a very risky one, and many who have entered into it havo loat heavily by their transactions. The priceb quoted at the begiuuing of tho letter ate higher than butter is ietchiug iv Sidney, lor New Zealand prime; from Ib. to Is. 4d. being about the mark. Fanners, if they are dissatisfied with tbe " middle man's " price, can send their butter themselves to foreign markets; but we believe in tho long run they would fiad it more profitable to take " cash " in tho town tnoy are living in than risking it fetching a high prico all llw year round in a foreign .narket.— Ed. Til]

There were about 200 caltlo an 1 horses ollering for tho W.il. mpu on Moniay, but llie Union Company li.uo only been able to reserve spaco for o\) cattle aal 20 horses.