Dec. 1894.] CO-OPERATIVE DAIRYING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



147 



inspection. As a result of this close and careful survey, prose- 

 cutions were instituted against 11 offenders for contraventions of 

 the branding clauses of the Act in question, and in every case 

 convictions were obtained, the lowest penalty (5^.) allowed by 

 the Act beinof inflicted in each instance. 



It is remarked in the report that the success or failure of the 

 New Zealand butter trade rests solely upon the quality of the 

 goods manufactured and landed in the market ; and that l^his 

 depends, not only upon the kind of machinery and plant and 

 skill employed in the making of the product, but also in the 

 facilities for speedy and safe transit from the manufactory to 

 the port of transhipment, proper storage at port of shipment, 

 ^nd care in transit on home steamers. 



The chief dairy instructor hopes that something will be done 

 to facilitate and improve the carriage of dairy produce to the 

 port of shipment, as well as to provide for its storage at the ports 

 while awaiting shipment. There is not the slightest doubt, in 

 his opinion, that the chief reason why so much poor butter 

 leaves New Zealand lies in the lack of favourable conditions for 

 its manufacture and transit. 



Another great disadvantage to the butter-making industry 

 in the Colony is, it appears, the empirical knowledge of the 

 butter makers employed in a great number of the factories. 

 Through the aid of first-class buildings and machinery, the 

 process of butter-making is now reduced in a great measure to 

 a mere mechanical operation. As a consequence, there are men 

 seeking and securing appointments as butter makers in factories 

 who have not had anything like the necessary tuition in the 

 management and care of milk and cream, not to speak of the 

 manufacture of butter and the working of dairy factory plant 

 and machinery, to enable them to become successful manufac- 

 turers. The chief dairy inspector recommends the employment 

 of a large staff of trained and skilled travelling dairy instructors 

 as the only means of overcoming this serious difficulty. 



A 2 



