CHEESE STORAGE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2394, 25 February 1915, Page 7

CHEESE STORAGE

MODIFIED' SCHEME. PROEOSED. At tha meeting of the ..Wellington l&rtour Board last night, a letter was leoaived from the secretary of the Deipartment of Agriculture dealing with the; matter of cool storigo accommodation for cheese. ' The letter was as follows"With ferenoe to the reoent. conference be-tween-membeau of your bond, the representatives of the dairy factories concerned,' and certain officers of this De-partment,-in regard to the cold storage of cheese, prior, to shipment from lie Port of . Wellington, I have the honour (to inform you that immediately after the conference k meeting was held, at which the dairy - representatives and -officers .of the Department ■ were pre%ent, and on the matter being discuss,®d it was made perfectly clear that the ftSoutb .Taranaki factories) would not .inake use, at a charge of BS. per ton, of .cold storage'to bo provided by the Haribonr Board. As the oatput of these factories': is in the neighbourhood of half the .total quantify that would-! be i.dealt witli at the proposed store, there is, I regret to say, no doubt that the laid down by the* board, namely, a tonnage of about 20,000 tons -.per annum, and a charge of Bs. per ton, ,cannot be complied .with. , "In these circumstances I shall be if the matter can be further gone into, on the basis of making provision for only the cheese graded: at Wellington (mainly the output of the Manawatu .-and Wairarapa factories),- which it is estimated will not be far short of 10,000 ions next season, and which will doubtless continue to expand, as has : beei the case for some veafs past. It is to ibe hoped that the board can,' by adopting a smaUer scheme than that laid ibrfore vthe conference, see its; way. to a rate not exceeding Bs. per ton on an estimated quantity of 10,000 tons rr annum. Unless this can be done, am afraid there is nothing for it but ito allow the proposal to stand over; .until such time as the output from the iWairarapa and Manawatu increases to Something like double its present size. < • "I . may say ' that in view of the "opinions expressed at the conference ;.-and subsequently the Department has tittle doubt that the. whole .of the icheese graded at Wellington would pass Sthrough the proposed store at a charge faf ?s. per ton, especially as it is.', underßtood—while no definite proposal to fthat effect has been' given—that there is every probability the board will,'if rat any time'in the future it'finds itself able to do so;without loss, reduce the charge below the', figufe mentioned." ,The chairman (Mr. R. Fletcher) said ihat'. ! the matter had been fully '. discussed at the, .conference, He had thought nothing would be gained un■3ess they went in for'a comprehensive scheme. All the representatives were • agreed as to the terms lut the Patea "company. Unless-they could get some gnaTapteo it was futile to go on with any big scheme. He did not know whether the board wouldtoonsider a smaller

Mr. A. M'Farlane asked could the present store hold the 10,000 tons.if tboy put in a freezing plant? ' That .would be'suitablo to .deal .with the Wairarapa and Manawatu ;cheese. On, the suggestion of > the chairman, %he ma.tter was allowed to the 'Engineer being instructed, to report at' 31 ext. meeting on a smaller scheme. '