A RETURNED COLONIST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7293, 4 January 1902, Page 7

A RETURNED COLONIST.

MR J. J.. HERRICK INTERVIEWED. Mr J. J. Herrick, one of the directors of Jthe Tai Tapu Dairy Company, returned by the Talune yesterday, from a visit to Europe, after a most enjoyable trip. Mr and Mrs Herrick left Lyttelton on May 15, for Sydney, -where they joined the White Star ! liner Suedic. The voyage home was a very pleasant one, the only places touched at ' being the Cape and Teneriffe. At neither; place were passengers allowed to go ashore on account of the plague. Being closely identified with the dairy industry here, Mr Herrick naturally devoted a good deal of his time .to looking into the butter trade at Home.' Prom the inquiries ne made, he found that the New j Zealand product was giving every satisfaction, and that the Tai Tapu brand was particularly in favour, so much so that a very satisfactory offer was cabled over for this season's output, which, however, ha 4 already been disposed of before tho offer arrived in the colony. The experts could suggest no improvement in either ,the quality or the mode of packing. Strange to say, the old butter was considered the best, tie new season's being voted a trifle " fishy " in flavour;' At the tune- of Mr Herrick's visit to London, there was virtually no New Zealand butter in . the market. He was pleased to find xhat butter from this colony had established a • very good name for quality, and from what :• he" could gather, he is satisfied that the demand for it, provided the quality is kept ■up, is almost unlimited. While in Scptland, Mr HerricJ' purchased some Danish butter. He says it ia beautifully got up, and of very fine flavour, but was somewhat tasteless owing to there being very little salt used. It was made up in halfpound packets, wrapped in paper. In Glasgow there is a .new shop opened for the sale of the Danish product and marga- 1 line, of both of which there were very j large displays. The manner in which the margarine was^ got up, left, nothing to be desired, but i;he flavour was very tallowy, v and he doubts whether it would be used in this colony except for pastry, but inScotland there Was a ready sale for it. Mr Herrick found that the New Zealand article was reaching pretty well all parts of, England and Scotland, and so far as hecould hear no improvement could be sug-; gested in the manner of distribution. The: American butter, Mr Herrick says, is got* up in much the same style as the New Zea-? land product, and until he saw the brands) he could not tell the boxes from those sent Home by the Tad Tapu. factory. He is of opinion that there is a very great futurat for New Zealand butter in* the Old Counf try. ■ • r - ' 5 Mr Herrick visited the Dairy Show «| Holloway., The entries were numerou9j end the quality of the milking cafctw was extremely good. All breeds were represented, but Shorthorns predominate* Quite a feature of tkia show was the dairymaids' competition, for which a large mun| ber of young women entered, and the contest was very keen. Each, one ihad"a hand separator, and: all the butter was hamdr made. Mr Herrick does nob think that it would be advisable to introduce these competitions at New Zealand shows, as, from his- experience, it is much better for the farmers to send their milk to the factories tHau to attempt. to compete with these concerns by means of hand labour. Although there was a very large display of dairying machinery, Mr Herrick did not see anything which was ranch ahead of the machinery now in use in this colony. A large number of milking machines were on the ground, but none w€jre working, and Mr Herrick was' told that there was no need' to show them ait work, as they had, all been tested, and they were all well? known. He "endeavoured to see some- in' work, but failed, and! in this he was disappointed, as ihe is satisfied that, with the difficulty experienced in getting hands for milking, both in Australia and here, if the dairying industry is "to be made to pay ifc will be necessary to in.trod<uo& milking aamchines. Many of the machines were of types quite unknown in New Zealand, bub from .inquiries made, Mr Herrick 1 came to the conclusion that they were nob coming into general use in England. While in Scotland Mr Herrick visited the Glasgow Exhibition, and was very much struck by the wonderful display of machinery, all of which jwas shown in motion. He was, however, disappointed with the show of agricultural machinery, which was not to be compared with the collections at the metropolitan -©hows here. It was estimated tbab $he promoters would make £100,000 clear out ©f the Exhibition. , ' ) >. Speaking of agricultural machinery, Mr Herrick said he was very muoh surprised to find how much both English, and Scottish farmers were tfehindi the colonies in this respect. He found 1 farmers still using the old eingle-furrow plough, with, a man to guide it and boy to drive a pair of • horses. The farmers told him that it would not pay them to use the ttouble-furrow, a* they would not know what to do With y their men, whom they were bound to keep \on all the year round, or they would be unable to get assistance at harvest time. In most cases the threshing machines were of the type used here thirty years ago, and elevators are almost unknown there, conr eequently several . extra hands are required to carry ijhe straw to the stack. Reapers and binders, however, are now coming into general use, although) on some of the smaller farms the scytihe is still resorted to for cutting white crops. In Scotland many farmers have threshing machines driven; by water power, and the grain is carted to the machine and afterward® the straw has to be taken to the rick yard for winter feed for the cattle, which have to be housed and fed on artificial food for from three to five months out of the year. Very large areas are pub under roots for this purpose, Swede turnips being mostly grown. Mr Herrick was somewhat surprised at the absence of both rape and lucerne, neither of which appear to be grown for feed. Mr Herrick paid several visits to the Mark Lane Corn" Exchange, and was much struck- by its magnitude. On each occasion, he says, there ware at least 500 'brokers doing business. During the time he was at HomeT.the wheat market was extremely --fiatO On the other hand, there was a keen demand for beans, which Mr Herrick thinks is likely to continue; and he is of opinion that the farmers of New Zealand would do better to turn their attention to growing beans rather than wheat, more especially as the former were fetching 33s~per quarter, while wheat ruled at 27s 6d. 'When Mr Herrick visited tlhe,Smithfield Market in July the weather was extremely hot, and he found that, so far as New Zealand mutton was . concerned^ tie business doing was of an 'almost retail nature. Our products aire not as yet sufliciemtly known, and many persons whom he spoke to on the matter condemned New Zealand mutton and lamb, saying that it was tough and shrunk up too much in cookine However, m one place where he was Htaying in Russell Square, in London, he took home some New Zealand laanb, and arranged with the landlady to cook it, and after those at dinner had partaken of it, not knowing that it was not prime Scotch, he asked their opinion of it, and aH agreed that it was tender and) juicy, and the company were much surprised when they were informed that they had been eating New Zealand lamb. x cv. « i» Mr Herrick attended service at bt t Pauls Catihedral and most of the leading phurohes, and was very much surprised to find tlie immense size of Spurgeon's Tabernacle. The building has three galleries and accommodates about 3000 people, and at the time of Mr Herrick's visit was crowded In spite of this tthe acoustic properties of the building were so good that every word of Spurgeon's could be heard in the most remote portions of the Tabernacle. One of the wonders of London, says Mr Herrick, is «h c underground tube railway, which is greatly taken advantage of by commercial men, and it is the intention ot the London flounfcy Council to spend an-,

other £32,000,000 in extending the system. The Tower bridge and the new Thames subway at Blaokwall were both objects of great', interest, and -tfhese have both done muoh. <to relieve the congestion of the traffic over th)B bridges in the vicinity. Motor cans are now coming into general use in both London and Edinburgh as public conveyances, and run at the same price •as the busses. They are mostly built in the style of -waggonefctes to (hold from four to eight persons, and manner in ■which. tlhey can get 'through the crowded streets was simply (marvellous. Mr Herrick pays a- tribute to the London police, who, h e says, are a very fine body of men, and particularly obliging and courteous to strangers, and afc the same time are perfect walking cyclopaedias. In spit© of the manner in which this colony has been advertised by the AgentGeneral and others, as well as by the sending of contingents to South. Africa, Mr Herrick found that very few persons outside • those who have business relations with it knew anything afoouifc it, and in spit© of its refusal' to sink its identity in the Federation, people still associate ifc withi Austoalia. Mr and' Mrs Herrick returned 1 to Aus- ■ tralia by the Orient line, andl had a very pleasant trip, touching at various places of interest, but finding the heat in the Red Sea intense. ' j