COLONIAL ENTERPRISE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 948, 21 May 1883, Page 2

COLONIAL ENTERPRISE.

-' The Otago Daily Times, of a recent date, contains an interesting account of the new building of Messrs Reid and Gray, in Dunedin, from which we take the following extracts : —lt is now 10 years since the well-known firm of Reid and Gray commenced business in Princes street south as manufacturers of agricultural machinery ; and from that date their business has steadily increased, till at the present time the firm employs upwards of 230 hands. Since that time, too, the buildings have been gradually expended, until now, with a recently-erected substantial three-storey building, they present quite an imposing appearance, and occupy a considerable block of land between Princes and Crawford streets at the south end of the town Our steps were first directed to the ground floor of the new building, which is used exclusively for carpenters’ work. Here a new engine has been erected for diiving the wood-work-ing machinery alone, ropes manufactured of the best Manilla hemp being used instead of the conventional leather belts for conveying the power to the different machines in operation. The ropes, which have been adopted in the M sgiel and Kaikorai Woollen Factories, and various other establishments in Dunedin, are found to be a great improvement on the old plan, working much more smoothly and lasting considerably* longer than belts, while at the same time they are not so costly. One of the most 'interesting machines on this floor is what is known as *he double-shaping machine —used for shaping dray felloes, bent shafts, or curved work of any d« cription. This is work which used to be done by hand, and was in many cases a very laborious process ; but now by means of the two head cutters, whicli make 4,000 revolutions in a minute, the most difficult job can be turned off in about a minute. We passed a band-saw, a planing machine (which planes three sides of a block at one operation), a combined morticing and boring machine, and a combined planer and circular saw, all doing their work in firstclass style. In the farther end of the building is a machine which is kept continually turning dray-wheel spokes and swingletrees. This requires very little attention from the workman who has charge of it. He simply fixes a r-ugh, unsawn piece of wood in a horizontal position, shifts a belt on to the driving pulley, and in the very short space of three minutes a nicely-finished dray spoke is the result — an operation which used to be performed by hand with the old-fashioned tools in about three-quarters of an hour. Among i other machines on this floor we noticed

an emery grinder, with centrifugal pump, by which the exact quantity of water needed ie poured on the surface of the stone. In all, four of these stones are kept going in the works, and the average time it takes to wear one away is about a month. We noticed one of the jointed pulverising disc-wheel harrows, which are now coming greatly into favor with colonial farmers. These harrows are only a recent inven-

tion, and three or four years ago they were scarcely heard of in New Zealand ; yet during the last two seasons Messrs. Reid and Gray manufactured 300, and this season they expect to turn out 200, Some of the harrows have combined with them machines for sowing grain, and more particularly grass seeds. Leaving the showroom, we were escorted through the moulding-room, where the scene is a very busy one, some thirty hands being at present employed there. Several improvements have recently been effected in this department, and the work is now greatly facilitated by the adoption of machines tor making many of the moulds, which were hitherto only made by hand. Cast malleable iron is largely utilised in the manufacture of the different machines, the process being completed by means of the annealing furnace, where the castings are kept night and day for about a week in a red-hot condition. In the same room where this furnace is located, two large travelling cranes will shortly be erected, one capable of lifting two tons, and the other one ton weight. They will be used for shifting the moulds to the furnace, and lifting patterns and moulding boxes. In the blacksmith’s shop a large number of men are busily at work, some of them engaged at piecework. Here there are no fewer than four steam hammers, of from to lOcwt. each. One of them has j ust been replaced after a life of four years—a rather short existence —on account of its being misused a good deal for the purpose of cutting bariron. A number of the men were busy with the double-furrow ploughs, for the manufacture of which the firm have ’now obtained a more than colonial reputation. Some of the processes are very interesting, the ease with which the flat steel plates for the mould-boards are bent into shape by a 10-ton hydraulic press being marvellous. Last season 760 double furrows, 60 swing, and 40 three-furrow ploughs were manufactured. These are sent all over the colony, and the double-furrows go even to the sister colonies, where they first came under the notice of farmers through the Melbourne Exhibition, the jurors speaking in very complimentary terms of their finish and construction, and awarding them the gold medal for ploughs. Already the firm have manufactured and sold upwards of 6,000. The prices for double-furrow ploughs range from Ll sto LlB. Amongst other machines made by the Arm may be mentioned their well-known back-delivery reaper, a model of durability and simplicity, of which 200 are made every year, and the common chaffcutter and horse-, power driving gear, of which, during the year, about 150 of each are manufactured. Other well-known and equally serviceable implements to the farmer are manufactured in abundance, such as subsoilers, combined subsoiler and plough, Cambridge rollers, chain and zigzag harrows, broadcast sowers, etc. Such is a brief outline of the works at present undertaken by Messrs Reid and Gray, the details being, on account of the limited space at our disposal, necessarily meagre. Already branches have been established in Invercargill, Oamaru, Timaru, Ashburton, Christchurch, and Auckland, and a branch will shortly be opened ,at Napier. The firm have been awarded prizes at nearly every show in the province, and they have besides 100 silver medals and numerous exhibition certificates in their possession, the Melbourne and two other gold medals and a bronze medal gained at the Sydney Exhibition.