XX INTRODUCTION. 



supply of the latter product to Britain. New cheese factories are 

 now being built, and there is every prospect, therefore, that the 

 future export will be still greater than it is at present. 



In still more recent years a steady development of dairying has 

 occurred in Australia and New Zealand, owing to the fact that the 

 shipping of butter and cheese in good condition to this country has 

 been proved to be practicable. The exports from Australia have 

 proved so profitable to the producers that every year witnesses a 

 great increase in the quantity sent over; while the home demand of 

 these colonies for dairy produce is naturally becoming greater in 

 proportion to the rapid increase of population. Thus, in the first 

 six months of 1894, Australia exported to Britain 198,004 cwts. of 

 butter, while in the first six months of 1895 the export had increased 

 to 241,665 cwts., or a growth in one year of over 20 per cent. The 

 total import of butter into England in 1894 was 32,000 tons more 

 than in 1889, and nearly half of that additional quantity came 

 from Australia. There is every probability in the near future that 

 the Australian export of dairy produce will assume much greater 

 dimensions; for the dairy industry in Australasia, now that an 

 export trade to Britain has become fairly established, is advancing 

 by leaps and bounds. A further illustration of this is found in the 

 fact that the export of butter, which was about 3f millions of Ibs. 

 in 1891, had risen in 1892 to 6J millions of Ibs. In 1891-92 the 

 number of cheese and butter factories existing was 74, while in the 

 following year there were 109. In the Province of Victoria alone, 

 there were in 1892-93 upwards of 400,000 milk cows, which yielded 

 over 120 millions of gallons of milk. Of this it has been estimated 

 that about one-third was consumed in its natural state, that about 

 75 millions of gallons were made into butter, and the remaining 

 five millions of gallons into cheese. In New Zealand the energetic 

 efforts of the Department of Agriculture have been very successfully 

 directed to the encouragement of dairying. Only a few years ago 

 there were no co-operative factories in existence, and, practically, 

 there was no export trade. Cheese and butter were made only on 

 a small scale, and almost entirely for local consumption. But in 

 1893 about 180 factories and creameries had become established, 

 and in 1894 these were increased by about thirty more. The pro- 

 duction was estimated in 1892-93 at 8,167,500 Ibs. of cheese, and 

 6,722,303 Ibs. of butter; while the exports alone in 1893 amounted 

 to 58,147 cwts. of butter, and 46,198 cwts. of cheese. There is every 



