A PAGE IN HISTORY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 214, 18 September 1940, Page 5

A PAGE IN HISTORY

SENDING THE FIRST BUTTER TO ENGLAND V PIONEER'S DEATH RECALLS INITIAL MARKETING The death or Mr Charles George Jarrett, of Leamington, recalls the most important step in this country's development— the initial consignment of butter to England and notes andl documents in the possession of Mr William Jarrett, of Whakatane, a son of the pioneer, show that Mr C. G. Jarrett was in-i strumental in paving the way for our primary export trade. From the notes it seems that the making of the 'Anchor' brand of butter (noAV the brand of the N.Z. Co-op Dairy Company Ltd.) was commenced in 1893 by Henry ReynoTfls and Company (the founder of the company being an uncle of Mr F. J;. Reynolds, Thornton) in a building at Pukekura, near Cambridge. After a while Mr Reynolds found that he was making more butter than he could sell in New Zealand and informed Mr Jarrett that if he knew of anyone in England to whom consignments could be made, he could send a sample which, he hoped, might result in a sale. Experiment Justified. I Mr Jarrett had the friendship of a Mr John Morgan, of Birmingham, and offered to send him a sample. He packed six lots of oOlbs each in boxes and three hundredweight in one pound tins. This experiment proved that it was impossible to use tins, the salt air rusting the metal. The boxed butter apparently arrived in reasonably good order in Birmingham and upon its receipt Mr Morgan immediately cabled to Mr Reynolds, inviting him to go to England. This the latter did and returned to New Zealand so pleased with the oultlook for future marketing that he immediately leased the cheese factory at Hillcrest, Hamilton, and converted it for the manufacture of butter. Other cheese factories were purchased for the new industry and these included Hautapu, T'e Awamutu and Paterangi, with new creameries being erected at Whatawliata, Oliaupo, Pukerimu and Whangarata. The last named served only the one season as the owner and a Mr Wesley Spragg agreed on a zoning of territory.

Treasures Kept. One treasured document is a letter from Mr Morgan, of Birmingham, who is described in the heading as a Factor and Commission Agent and Sole Agent "in Birmingham and tlie Midlands for Reynolds and Co. Ltd., Producers and Importers of Guaranteed Pure . New Zealand Butter, Anchor Brand. Dated 'Xmas, 1904, one passage reads: — "Nearly 25 years, is it since you left England's shores? And now some 12 years since you acted as a mainspring that caused the heading lines on this sheet of paper and; T have in front, of me the box with the 'Anchor' Brand on it that carried some of the butler. The first samples of Waikaio 'Anchor' Brand that ever came to Birmingham and today I am prouder of it than ever I was and all this is owing to your goodwill—so you cannot wonder at my pleasure—we two (three) have helped bind 'Maoiiland' close to the Old-Oltl Homeland. May the bond ever tighten is the heartfelt wislt| of, Yours Fraternally, John Morgan." The second treasured document bearing on the establishment of the export trade is a letter from Viscount Bledisloe, former . GovernorGeneral of New Zealand, who concludes his letter: "I am all the more pleased because you arc, like myself, a Gloucestershire man."