The N.Z. confectionery Works.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 106, 2 November 1896, Page 2

The N.Z. confectionery Works.

The above works, which were started in Feilding some nine months ago, in Manchester street, have recently been removed to coach larger and more con* venient premises in Fergnsson street, viz., the laree brick store erected by Mr W. D. Nicholas, the change having been forced on the proprietors, Messrs Palmer and Co., owing to their rapidly increasing trade. On an inspection of the factory we find that in the main workroom, which is splendidly lighted with fine sky lights, there are three furnaces for preparing the sugar, which is boiled to a temperature of 320 degrees for most of the goods manufactured under the capable managemont of Mr Grant, who, by the way, made the confectionery exhibited by Mr Griffiths, of Wellington, at the Sydney International Exhibition of 1880, when it gained the first and second prizes. After boiling, the liquid is ponred on iron plates and from there worked up according to the variety of confectionery desired. In the principal room of the factory there are two benches along the walls and one down the centre of the room, and here the manufacturer and his three assistants are kept busily engaged, in fact they are scarcely able to supply all the orders in hand from most of the towns along the coast from Otaki to New Ply* mouth and, also from towns along the Napier line. This is the only factory of the kind between Wellington and Auckland, and some of the varieties of confectionery are not even made in those towns. Fully one hundred different kinds are made, including all sorts of boiled and many of dry goods. At present about four tons of sugar a month are used, in addition to which about one hundred weight of gelatine, the same quantity of pure cocoa (which is purchased in blocks of seven and fourteen pounds), gum arabic (the main ingredient of jujubes), glucose, almonds, about a dozen quarts of cream and abont twenty pounds of butter a week are used in the manufacture of the most tempting sweetmeats. The coloring used is pure vegetable, which in so harmless that it could be eaten by ittelf. To the rear of the principal workroom k a very convenient drying room, fitted up according to the original idea of Mr Grant, it being heated by means of the flue from the furnace being carried through it to a chimney. In this room such confectionary as London mixtvres are treated. There are, also, two other rooms used in the course of manufacturing the confectionary. On an average the sugar is boiled for three-quarters of an hour over a steady coke fire, about forty pounds at a time being treated, excepting in the case of such goods as jujubes, when about seventy pounds are> boiled. Some descriptions of confectionery are completed within the hour, while* others, such as jujubes, are a week in preparation. The process of lolly making? is very interesting, not the least notice* able feature being in connection with the manufacture of penny sticks and " black balls,! ' in which there are swo colors, one being a dark brown and the other neatly pure white. The sugar is all boiled together and when turned out of the cauK dron, as a very thick liquid of a dark brown color, on the stone, a portion is taken according to the quantity required, and " pulled " on a hook attached to the wall. This " pulling " process is continued for a few minutes and the material, in a very short time, changes to a whitish hue and increases in bulk by the aetiou of the atmosphere. Both portions are then pulled into strips along the bench and the two colors rolled together or mixed according to the variety of goods required. There are three moulding machines in use, in which any pattern can be fixed as required. In front of the factory are two rooms one being used as a shop for the retail trade* and it is the intention of the proprietors to open a refreshment room in the other. There is every prospect of the factory developing into an important industry, as Fowling is in a very convenient position for distributing to any part of the coast or to, the Hawke'a Bay district, and the proprietors are to be congratulated on their/ enterprise, the success of which is assured.