The following article on the question of putting Siberian butter on the market here appears in the "Novi Kral" of 4th Novem-24
"We had occasion last year to speak about the preparations that -were being made in Australia to establish regular direct steamship communication with Port Arthur. The object of the Australians is to in-ate a service of quick steamers to run from Port Darwin to Port Arthur in eight or ten days. Tt will probably not be a full your till the Federal Parliament approves of alway line from Melbourne to Port Darwin; and, after that the Australians will at once begin to build x line of steamers, provided with cold chambers for the storage of produce such as meat, fat, butter, ete., to run to the ports of Japan, Ohina, and Manchuria and to sell their goods throughout the tropics.
A Rival of Australia. will find her principal rival in Siberia, and "In the sale of these products Australia
this is why it is indispensable for us to keep a. vigilant eye on the young Commonwealts. Her products are not inferior to those of Siberia; but considering the quick Australians, their skill in tention to their goods, and their desire to pleas consumers in the Far East and to study their tastes and necessities, it is very possible that they will outstrip us and that Australian meat, butter and fat will find a readier sale on the Japanese markets than the corresponding products from Siberia.
Siberian Butter, Before going further, let us cast a glance at the position of our Siberian butter at a given moment on the market.
"From the statistics compiled by the American Commercial Agent at Dalny, Mr. Greener, concerning the quantity of butter which will probably be sold in the present year on the markets of the Far East, the total amount comes up to the respectable figure of 300,000 boods (one pood=36.11 English Ibs.) According to the statistics of the same American, Agency, the quantity of bin, amounts yearly to 100,000 boods.. batter which is sold by one agent in, Har: astonishing figure, this! Translator.) American agent does not inform us what agent sells this butter and whether it is foreign or Russian butter, but we ave disposed to tink that it is foreign butter. as our people have not up to the present made use of cold storage waggons for placing fresh Siberian butter on the market."
Necessary to Hustle.
"It will therefore be necessary for us to wake up and hustle as much as possible and a3 soon us possible, for next year fresh Australian butter may be on the Far Eastern market and the longer we delay the more difficult it will he for us to compete with this new rival. It is therefore very satisfactory to hear that the Chinese Eastern Railway is running two very fine cold storage waggons a on the" Tehelabinsk-Tomsk-Dalny line in order that all the population in these parts may be provided with fresh Siberian butter. (Tehelabinsk is the first station on the Siberian railway. Translator.) Tt will be difficult to say how great will be the development of this undertaking. but it must be borne in mind that Viadivostock alone eensttmes yearly 60,000 boods of butter at 80 Kopeks and even at one rouble a funt. (One funt=0.9 English Ibs.) If the Chinese Eastern Railway Company proceeded to construct steamers with cold storage rooms for the sale of Siberian meat and butter on the markets of the Far East. there is no doubt that Siberian butter would be able to compete on advantageous terms not only with American butter, but even with the cheap Australian butter. It is impossible, we repeat, to say how much this industry may Tevelop and what measure of success our efforts may meet with, but there can be no Goubt that our butter will be one of the most important articles of commerce sold beyond the frontiers of Siberia. Wo might also repeat in conclusion that the sooner we at-toad to this matter the better."
Japanese Butter.
There can be no doubt about the ultimate success "f Siberian butter in Liaotung and Viadivostock, at all events, considering that the sale of it will be taken in hand by the great Railway Company which may be Yooked upon as a department of the Government, and will be favoured in every way by officialdom. In fact it is astonishing that good butter sells here at such a high price one rouble for 0.9 Ib., while at Tehelabinsk or Krasnoyarsk it sells at one-third of that price. Perhaps the explanation lies in the fact that, owing to the abnormally high rates of freight on the railway and to the absence of cold-storage accommodation. Siberian butter on the market ere without no private merchant could place fresh
loss.
It is surprising that the Japanese do not make some efforts to sell the butter which they produce in the Agricultural College at Supporo, Hokkaido. The northern island of Japan seems to be more suitable for the Tearing of cows and the making of butter than any other part of the Japanese empire, and on the occasion of a visit which T paid it two years ago I remember secing at Sap-pore all the plant for tinning butter. I suppose, however, that the great obstacle to the sale of Japanese butter is the fact that the Japanese cannot make good butter because the majority of them have not the remotest idea of what good butter is and do not care for it any more than the Cainese do. Thisis shown by the awful compounds hearing the name of butter which one invariably meets with in the hotels and restaurant in Japan which are not managed by foreigners, and by the success which attends the efforts of those gentry who go in for fabricating "butter" and passing it off on a guileless public as some well-known French or Danish brand.
It is just possible that the present am-bilious expansion of the Sapporo institution T have just mentioned and its conversion from a nominal Agricultural College into University, may lead its professors to over-Took sua a vulgar matter as butter, but on this question I'am not competent to speak. It is somewhat remarkable, however. that the Trappist monks of Tobetsu near Hak date turn out for sale a small quantity of cellent, butter which fetches a high price in Tokio.
T never seo Canadian butter on the mar-Ket here though I think it, has some chance. Australian tinned butter is already sold la some Russian stores but is not popular. The best butter is a fresh butter which is ma think, locally (there is a "milk farm, it calls itself. here where good fresh mi and cheese is sold, but at a rather high Next comes a Russian tinned butter from Odessa (A. V. Chicke The tinned milk which is mostly used is the St. Charles Fxaporated Cream, which holds the field here almost without a rival as does the tinned milk of the Anglo-Swiss Company Form It is as difficult to account for tastes in condensed milk as it is to account for tastes in beer, ladies' dress, and a num: ber of other things, but almost everywhere you go in Port Arthur you find old St. Charles Evaporated Cream tins with the usual two holes bored at the top. These fins are almost as plentiful as the empty vodka bottles or the bottles of Yakobson. Yereschagin and Co.'s methylated spirits which are strewn about in all directions, Which indies te ina. striking manner the absence of home life in Port Arthur and the prevalence of the imperanious European Jmehelor (he pervades Port Arthur more than any other town in Asia) with his sniritlamp and happy-go-lucky system of cookery.
Foe tax Buoon 1 rex Liss." Clarts's World-famed Blood Mixture in warranted to cleanse the blocd from all from whatever cause arising. For tala, Scurry, Eczema, Bed Legs, Skin and Nood Diseaces, Pimples, and Sores of all Kinds, its effects are marvellous. Than-sands. of wonderful cures have been effected by it. Sold everywhere at 2s. 94. Ragars nf eorthlew mitztion
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.