Report of the Dairy Expert. 229 



directly interested in the product at high figures, it is incumbent 

 upon them to maintain the standard. With full supplies then they 

 have to see that a sufficient number of customers are secured to keep 

 up the price. She has, therefore, a well organised army, finding 

 customers for every box to arrive. It will be seen, therefore, that 

 New Zealand's clientele is much more "extensive in consequence of her 

 grading system and is not confined merely to a few. In the absence of 

 grading only a consignment business is usually done. It is too much 

 to hope that values in Great Britain will remain at the same high level 

 as have been experienced for the last four years. We must encounter 

 a declining market after the abnormal demand dui'ing the period of 

 the late war. Grading will enable us to command a far wider range 

 of purchasers, who would buy on grade alone a large section of our 

 output to arrive. In this way we would reap direct advantages. The 

 makers of our best butter may say that they have nothing to gain by 

 grading, that the appearance on their boxes of the Government stamp, 

 " Approved for export, 1st Grade," will not help them in any way, 

 but their individuality will in no way be obliterated, and they will 

 thus be enabled to leave inferior brands in their proper place. An 

 incentive to improve would be thus forced upon the makers of an 

 inferior article. I know that this has been a very much debated 

 question, but having watched closely the course of events in all parts 

 of the world for the last seven years, I am thoroughly convinced that 

 it will be vastly to the benefit of our industry to have the whole of our 

 butter graded. This matter was before Parliament until recently and 

 therefore a political subject, but now that the Minister of Agriculture 

 has approved of voluntary grading, I feel free to give it my earnest 

 advocacy. It will materially help us in regaining markets which we 

 have recently been obliged to abandon through shortage in production, 

 as I have already pointed out. 



Cheese. 

 With the manufacture of cheese, gradual and satisfactory head- 

 way is being made. Federation has given a substantial fillip to its 

 extension, and since Victoria is most favoured for its production the 

 bulk of the Commonwealth's requirements will certainly come from 

 this State. Half-a-dozen new factories have been established within 

 the last year, and our esteemed Director of Agriculture is alive to the 

 necessity of assisting in raising the standard of our output. Mr. 

 Archer, of the Department, has been pursuing the coat-off system of 

 teaching for the last few months, and has already done much towards 

 raising the quality. The new method of maturing cheese at low 

 temperatures will also increase the profits of our dairymen. Some 

 time ago, I indicated the advantages of this system, and our exper- 

 ience has since been in the direction of confirming what has previously 

 been reported. It is hardly likely, however, that Victoria will find it 

 to her advantage to cater largely for the London market with cheese, 

 because it is not so concentrated a product of milk as butter. The 

 charges for railage, handling and ocean freight, are the same per lb. 

 as in the case of butter, therefore to market in London e^ery pound 

 of cheese would cost twice as much as a corresponding value of 



