CHEESE FACTORIES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 123, 5 May 1884, Page 2

CHEESE FACTORIES.

In view of the early starting of our local industry, the following from the Waikato “ correspondent of an Auckland contemporary, < will prove of great interest to a large number of our readers:—Mr. Bowron, who loft on Wednesday for Te Arolia, has been on an official visit to the Waikato cheese factories, s and has expressed himself as highly pleased and gratified with the successful manner in which th a sociatedcheese making industry has been established in Waikato. He was particularly pleased with the quality of the clucse, especially the Cheddar manufactured by Mr. Spoeke at the Ohaupo factory, carried ” on in the grand stand of the old racecourse at Rukuhi.i, which has made the most substantial and commodious of the four factories erected in Waikato. The only fault found with the R ikuhia cheeses was that they wen made too small. Mr. Bowron being of opinion that,-for th i English market at least 901bs is tl’.ebct s -Hing -ieo. He unhesitatingly gave the palm to the Rukuhia Factors as making the fin ■ t quality of cheese, and to the Hamilton, 1 !':.<•! aH being the rno-t economically and ably managed, a fact by the intention of the directors to declare a dividend of 8 per cont, on the paid up capital at their next annual meeting, on ihe present season’s work, and this after paying Id. per grUon for the milk. Next to the Rukuhia, Mr. Bowron considered the Patcrangi Company’s cheese

the best flavored. On inspectionj of the Waikato Cheese Factory’s produce was equally satisfactory. Mr. Bowron stated as his opinion that such cheese as he saw there would, if it arrived in England in the months of March, April, or May Rhe best for the sale of such produce) realise fully 70s. per cwt. In the course of conversation an interesting fact was mentioned by Mr. Bowron, showing the need of such a society as that of the North New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association, to secure even for cheese factories security from the exactions of the middlemen, who consume all margin of profit to the producer. He had consigned one ton and a half of the Ashburton Factory’s cheese to a son in England, and at the same time consignments of cheese from the same factory had been sent Home by two other New Zealand firms. Mr. Bowron, jun., placed his 30 cwt. on the market at 635. per cwt., one of the other firms theirs at 565., and the other at 50s. per cwt. In a few days the purchaser of Mr. Bowron’s lot came back for more, and was told that other consignments had come by the same vessel from New Zealand. He hunted them up, and finally purchased them, after they had passed through four different hands, for 60s. per cwt., the middlemen securing in one case the profit of IQs., and in another of 4s. (or rather cf 13s, and 75.) per cwt., which should have gone to the producer. The Waikato Factory intend sending Home a large consignment of cheese shortly,