THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1921. PLAINS PIG INDUSTRY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4311, 31 August 1921, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1921. PLAINS PIG INDUSTRY.

In another column a report appears of a meeting held at Kopuarahi yesterday by the N.Z. Cooperative Bacon Co., Ltd. From the remarks made it seems obvious that the operations of the company have resulted in the producers of bacon securing higher prices than would have been the case had the company not been in' existence. It follows, therefore, that the continued existence and expansion of the company is a very desirable thing from the producers’ point of view. And it is equally obvious that a district which produces such a large number of pigs annually as are reared on the Hauraki Plains is a very desirable quarter for expansion to take place. Somewhere on the Plains, possibly at Ngatea or Turua, a bacon factory would probably prove a good commercial proposition, and no doubt such a factory would soon be erected if sufficient share capital was forthcoming. For the sake of keeping up reasonable prices, and to save costs o'f freight and other expenses incidental to the transportation of live stock for distances, it ought to pay the producers handsomely in the long run to provide the necessary funds. A penny or twopence extra per lb, together with incidental reductions in costs, would soon recoup shareholders for their outlay. The Waihou and Piako rivers provide ! he. means of water-carriage for the product direct to Auckland, or by transhipment for overseas markets, and the sooner the trade is so developed'the better for all concerned. The Plains constitutes a special district, and in all these matters needs catering for locally and centrally; the display, in a practical manner, of a spirit of co-operative enterprise would result in the speedy provision of i bacon factory to deal with the present output and the probable increase during the next decade. The farmers have it in their own hands to say whether they wih continue to have their pig trade dealt wit by outside factories oi handled entirely at a local centre.