THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. SATURDAY, 1st NOVEMBER, 1930. STANDARDISED CHEESE.

Waipa Post, Volume 41, Issue 3220, 1 November 1930, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. SATURDAY, Ist NOVEMBER, 1930. STANDARDISED CHEESE.

ALMOST every paper one picks up nowadays has some reference to the question of continuing, or discontinuing, the manufacture of what is known as standardised cheese, and up to the present the preponderance of expressed opinion is in favour of continuance. At two meetings in Te Awamutu on Thursday afternoon resolutions protesting against the proposal of the Government to prohibit the manufacture of standardised cheese were carried unanimously, and the text of the resolutions (they were almost identical) is to be forwarded to the Minister of Agriculture in the hope that weight of representation may turn the scale in his decision. There has been strong advocacy of continuance, and very little expressed opinion to the contrary—until this week. But now into the discussion enters no less a person, and authority, than His Excellency the GovernorGeneral. People in such high ambassadorial positions are not usually credited with being authoritative on such subjects as dairy produce, and its marketing at Home, but New Zealand has the good fortune to have as .the King's representative agentleman who attained' signal prominence in Great Britain as an authority on farming matters. He has given many evidences since coming to New Zealand of his abiding interest in this Dominion's welfare and in the problems that affect that welfare. Not the least of these are the production and marketing of dairy produce. So it is not surprising that his views on the subject of standardised cheese were sought and published far and wide. When speaking at the Carterton Agricultural and Pastoral Show on Thursday Lord Bledisloe stated that in catering for their-main market, Britain, New Zealand producers must supply what the British people want, or, as an alternative they must go to the wall. • His Excellency said he was not one of those who believed that a certain breed of cattle was equally good for butter or cheese, but while they might produce what they called standardised cheese — and it might be some of the finest cheese in the world—the British merchant classed it as skim-milk cheese, and would pay for it only what he was accustomed to pay for that class of cheese. Standardised cheese was not going to be judged upon its quality, but upon its name. Because the name did not convince the British purchaser, the producers were not going to get full value for their cheese. There must have been some good New Zealand cheese at the dairy show in London last week, be-, cause it was placed first in competition with all the Empire countries. In rpgard to butter as well as cheese, Lord Bledisloe urged that the markets to be served should be studied. For example, he said, tkey should ascertain why New Zealand butter was in poor demand in the north of England, although it sold well in London and the south of England, The popular features of taste, colour, and texture should be studied, too, so as

to give each area what it wanted. Export butter was graded very strictly in Denmark, and if the producers in New Zealand submitted to the same regulations as their competitors they would deserve to have, and would always have, control of the market of Britain.

Thus there are two sides to the problem, just as there are two sides to any question, and the present one bristles with difficulties, as the distinguished student of agriculture has so clearly stated. If the buyers do not want our produce as marketed, the obvious thing is to present it in a form that is acceptable, or adopt an educative propaganda that will convince the that the goods offered are what they need. In past years we New Zealand ers have taken some delight in reproaching British manufacturers with a conservatism that forbade them altering the design of their wares to suit our needs or requirements; now the boot is on the other foot, and the consumers, or at least those who handle our produce at Home, are telling us, per medium of the market, that we must present our wares in a form more acceptable to them. Some may say that we can proceed to market our, own produce, but, when it comes to preparing butter or cheese in small parcels ready for the average consumer at Home, we of necessity increase the cost —an increase that must be borne by the vendor and not the consumer, with the result that the producer is "up against it" worse than ever. As the Governor-General pointed out, the markets to be served must be studied.