n 1

26

direct pressure and less friction than the latter. Instead of two rollers with very shallow flutes, I would recommend the Danish principle of one roller with deep but not spiral flutes. Several workers I have seen in factories as well as private dairies do far more harm than good, breaking the grain, and making the butter become mere grease. At the factories where they are used I have urged upon the managers and directors to shelve them and obtain a better construction. However, the Edendale and Mosgiel factories deserve the credit of turning out the best butter which New Zealand exports, and if every factory in the colony came up to their standard there would be little need for Government experts. I next visited the Flaxton and Sefton factories. The former, being built of red brick, should be whitewashed if not already done. The heat here caused great difficulties. The factory is to be taken over by the farmers next season. My next trip was to the Waikato, but here the majority of the factories belong to Messrs. Eeynolds and Co., by whom I was refused admittance. Messrs. Lang Brothers, Clevedon, Wairoa South, accorded me a very different welcome, and only complained that their request for the services of the Government expert had been so long neglected. This is the only factory I have come across in New Zealand where ice is bought at the excessive—indeed, prohibitive—price of Id. per pound, or £9 per ton f .o.b. Auckland. Why should ice cost so much here when artificial ice can be obtained in Denmark at £1 per ton, and natural ice can be imported to Great Britain and sold c.i.f. at such ports as Leith, Hull, or Newcastle for £4 per ton? Yet this has been sawn on the mountain-lakes of Norway, slid down into the ship's hold on long wooden slides, and come a distance of three or four hundred miles by sea. I visited several of the butter- and cheese-factories in Taranaki, and regret to say that one or two of them are a disgrace to the colony in the matter of equipment and management, and the produce turned out is not fit to bear the appellation of factory-made. And this brings me to, perhaps, the most important point which has come under my notice —viz., the branding of dairy-made butter as " New Zealand Factory Butter." Several unscrupulous shippers collect all the dairy-made butter they can lay hands on at prices varying from 4d. to 7d. per pound. This is taken to what they dignify by the name of a factory, placed on a butter-worker, blended into a quality of uniform colour and texture, or, rather, want of texture, packed in nice-looking kegs or boxes, branded " Factory Butter," " Separator-made," or with similar false and misleading terms, whereupon it is sent Home to throw disgrace on the name of New Zealand shippers, and prejudice English shippers against New Zealand butter. If there is any proceeding calculated to depress and seriously injure the dairy industry, it is this false branding. Most people imagine that the remedy consists in establishing a system of grading at the various ports of shipment; but to this I am utterly opposed for many reasons. In the first place, our ports of shipment are so numerous that the establishment of grading-chambers with cool storage, and the appointment of experts, would entail a very heavy expenditure; for unless really good experts are obtained the system would be worse than useless, and good experts cannot be obtained without offering a good salary. Secondly, as a shipper, I would very strongly object to having my boxes knocked about, lids broken, and to have my butter riddled with experts' " triers," and subjected to the danger of a tainted trier being inserted, to sow the seeds of decay and rottenness. Thirdly, grading prior to a six-weeks voyage would be of no value in guiding the English buyers. Even Cork butter, which is graded within a week of its arrival in London, is regarded with great wariness by the London buyers. It is frequently asserted that the reputation of Danish butter is due to the system of grading adopted by the Government of that country ; but I would like to point out, for the benefit of those ill-informed advocates of " grading at the port of shipment," that there is no such thing as Government grading in any port of Denmark. The well-deserved reputation of Danish butter is mainly owing to the fact that every factory, co-operative or private, maintains such close uniformity in its produce from week to week that it is sold entirely on brand, and is seldom or never seen by the buyer before purchase. And it is in this way only that New Zealand can build up as good a reputation for her cheese and butter. But this false branding bids fair to prevent the fulfilment of the desired end. The longer it is allowed to proceed the wider will its evil effects be felt, the harder will it be to stamp it out. The remedy I would propose is something on the following lines : (1.) Every factory should have a registered brand or trade-mark. (2.) A list of such trade-marks to be kept at each port of shipment, and no butter or cheese to be snipped without being branded. (3.) The person appointed to keep the register at each port shall fill up a fortnightly list of the quantity of butter shipped under each trade-mark, and forward the same to the Chief Dairy Instructor. (4.) The Instructor shall have authority to examine the books of every factory with a view to ascertain the quantity of milk supplied during any given period, whereupon he will be able to detect any discrepancies between the amount of milk supplied and the butter exported under any one brand. Some such scheme—with, of course, a good deal of modification and the insertion of many details— would, I think, answer the question, and I leave it to the Legislature to clothe my suggestion with the necessary words. On the west coast of the South Island, at Totara Flat, a butter-factory for local supply only will shortly appear. The farmers have guaranteed the produce of four hundred cows, and have taken up a share of £2 10s. for each cow guaranteed, of which about £2 will be called up. At the end of three years the capital will be returned to the shareholders, with interest, the amount being deducted from the profits—that is, the price of the milk. A valuation of the factory will then take place, and the suppliers will thereupon receive nominal shares in the factory pro ratd to the amount paid to them for their milk since the commencement of the factory. The general principles adopted are those set forth in the pamphlet on co-operative dairying written by myself, and published by the_ Government. They are those in general use in over two thousand factories in Denmark. Here I would remark that if it were not for the difficulty the small farmers experience in obtaining the necessary money to start factories, we should have seen factories in many districts