NETHERTON CREAM CARTAGE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4900, 9 November 1925, Page 2

NETHERTON CREAM CARTAGE.

Sir, —For some time past the farmers of Nethe'rton have been.divided on the question of supplying, butter-fat to the N.Z. Co-operative Dairy Co. or a proprietary concern. <That there was a »split in the ranks of’the primary producers in the district is well kqown, and as a result of it the Dairy Company’s cheese factory is not now functioning. The following particulars in regard to the cartage of cream by ■the two companies’may be of interest to your readers. The Waikato Valley Dairy Co. during certain months paid on an average one farthing per ib for butter-fat more than did the co-opera-tive concern.. It also erected a receiving depot for cream at Nethertpn, and has been successful in inducing a good number, of farmers to send their cream to Frankton Junction. 1 might point put that the Waikato Valley Co.’g lorry is taking cream at Hikutaia, thence across the ferry .to Orongo, picking up cream there and bringing it to the depot at Nethertbn. From that point it is carted to the Paeroa railway station ,and railed to Frankton. Does the farmer .realise the enormous damage that is. being done to the roads in his district by this heavy cream lorry,, apart from the fact that his cream has not-the same chance of being graded superfine after the long journey to Frankton as it would have were it taken direct to the Paeroa factory ? Under the system of cartage adopted by the proprietary concern.! find that it casting the farmer approximately onehalfpenny a lb in order to get oneeighth of a penny' per lb, apart from the inconvenience of having to cart one’s cream froni the farm to the depot. On the other hand .the cooperative company has erected cream stands and daily picks up the cream at those points, as well as dny that may be offering at the farms en route, and the. cream is carted in good condition to the Paeroa, factory. The wehr and tear and maintenance costs on our roads are thus being reduced to a minimum. Surely no sane-thinking farmfer with the progress of his district at heart will be so blind as to go on supporting a proprietary factory when there is a well organised cooperative company at his, door ? Where the two companies are picking up the cream the charges for the service are the same, but in th'e instance of the proprietary company direct delivery to i.ts dump is charged for at the rate of %d per lb. Realising that competition is the life of. trade, it is worthy of note that the operations of the proprietary concern at Nfe.therton have caused the- cooperative company to pay more attention to the’requests of its suppliers ; all the’ same, in my opinion it is not desirable that the ratepayers should be called 1 on to face the enormous cost necessary to maintain the roads for the use of th'e heavy cream lorries when a more satisfactory solution to the difficulty can be found. BUTTER-FAT. '