Dairy Produce.

Our butter industry, which has made tremendous strides during the past two years, and has in the meantime lifted many struggling settlers, especially in the North Island, out of difficulty, is, unfortunately, now a little under a cloud, which we may fairly have reason to hope will be partially at any rate lifted at this Conference, seeing that it is one of our most important subjects for discussion, and on which we are promised a paper by one of the earliest and most successful shippers, as well as probably the best authority we have in the handling of New Zealand dairy produce in the London market. I refer to our friend Mr Henry Reynolds. The invention of a perfectly satisfactory milking-machine will have a good deal to do with the future success of the dairy industry, and I think we have reason to hope this will be shortly accomplished. Up to the present time this industry has given a great impetus to the cattle trade, and the fact that the country generally through this industry is able to keep cattle at a profit, instead of having to stock wholly with sheep, is an advantage to both pastures and sheep which can hardly be over-estimated.