LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 127, 31 December 1915, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Owing to the New Year holidays there will be uo issue of the '! Pukekohe Times " on Monday next. Tou want a Diary for 1916. Full ttock at The Bookery.* Notice of dates of visits to different districts of a Government official for the purpose* of inoculating calves against Blackleg appears in our advertising columns.

We are requested by the Postmaster of Pukekohe to state that all correspondence will be delivered over the counter between 7 and 8 p.m. this Friday evening, 31st December, and that there will be no delivery by letter carrier on New Year's Day.

As previously announced, Professor 0. A. Lichtwark, the well-known horse educator, ia to give an exhibition of his humane and scientific system of handling and schooling the horse in Mr D. A Blake's smithy, Fukekohe, on Tues lay next. Those intereste'd should not fail to attend as they will certainly profi f . by the demonstration. Mr D Caddie, D.iry Commissioner, says a shortage of rennet is one of the possibilities of the near future. 'lbe csseoti.l article in cheesemaking is obtained mainly in Sweden, Denmark and Holland, and the raw material comes from all over tbe Continent. Last year th r • appeared to be ample ia stock for present-day requirements in New Zealand, but now a shortage is feared, and if it should materialise New Zealand cbecsemakera will be in a very awkward predicament. Mr Cuddie, in an article contributed to the "Journal of Agriculture," shows how the difficulty may be possibly overcome and rennet manufacture established in New Zealand. "The question ia if sufficient importance," he writes, "to warrant every dairy company in the Dominion carefully considering the subject, with a view of organising the collection of the raw material throughout tbe various dairying districts, s-jy, from the beginning of next scaeoi. As upwards of 30,000 gallons of rennet is required for the present outupt of cheese, the order will be a large one; but unless something is done to provide against disappointment and heavy losj, those concerned will onlv have themselves to blame should an actual deficiency occur.'' The Hush of the season as regards the manufacture of butter at the Pukekohe Butter Factory was reached during the week ended Dec. 4th. when the daily average output for that period worked out at nine tons eight hundredweight which after taking into consideration the amount which is now manufactured at the Waiuku factory shows an increase of two tons six hundredweight over last year's best average, the latter of course being before the Waiuku factory started operations. There are now 1100 suppliers to the factory, 50 of whom deliver home separated cream and the balance milk. The majority of the new suppliers to the factory are from the district between Pukekohe and Papakura, particularly Opaheke and from the Bazorback. They are all home separators. A pleasing feature with the company is that the grading continues high, the last two consignments being both graded 94. The labour question has been the most serious problem that the management have had to encounter of late. Several members of the staff left for the Front, consequently work was disorganised. Another item in the backwash created by th 9 war that put the Association to some little inconvenience was the sinking of two steamew by the Germans, which carried two motor lorries consigned to New Zealand and which the Association were going to use. A new labour saving innovation recently installed is a machine for packing the butter, which was formerly done by hand. It is a decided improvement on the old methods and makes a better job of the packing. Yesterday 425 half hundredweight cases of butter were packed by the machine.