NEW ZEALAND DAIRY ASSOCIATION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 203, 25 August 1916, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND DAIRY ASSOCIATION.

Last Season's Operations. The following is the report of the Directors to be submitted at the annual meeting of shareholders of the New Z?aland Dairy Association to be held on Wednesday next at Hamilton, viz. : •• The Association's factory managers have won during the. year the Weddel Cup and the Silkeborg Cup; also some half-dozen other prizes for quality in butter and cheese clashes. Favourable comment concerning the quality of the Association's products has also been received from 1 its London agents. Your Directors congratulate the factory managers on their splendid performance of the past season, and thank them for their efficient service During the year values have ruled much higher than ever before, while the quantity of butter and cheese made was much greater than during any preceding year. _ The Association's turnover was £872,375 58 2d for the year. The quantity of milk received during the year was 265,876,175108. The butterfat; paid for was 9,678,064 lbs for butter-fat manufacture, and 438,905 Jibs for cheese manufacture, and 6,8351bs were disposed of for other purposes. The manufacture during the year was 11,465,5081bs butter and 1,140,9481bs cheese. The overrun was 18.46 per cent., and 2.59 lbs of cheese were made from each pound of butter-fat. The average butterfat quality of milk was 3 807 per cent. The skim milk test average over all creameries was 0.037 per cent. The sum of £83,297 15s 8d has been allocated for final payments on butterfat, the rate per pound being l|d for butter supply, and from 3£d to 4|d per lb for cheese supply. Provision has been made for the payment of a dividend of six per cent on capital paid up on the 31st March last. The Directors recommend this payment, which will absorb £5,004 15s Bd. Including all payments on a butterfat basis for all-the-year-round supply, including daily delivery from September to March inclusive, direct to the central factories, the average payment for the year for butter manufacture is 16.73 (practically I6£d) per lb butterfat, which constitutes a new record for the Province and probably for the Dominion. Tho Association's suppliers for cheese manufacture at Orini receive an k avorage payment of 19.375 d (19jjd) 1 per lb butterfat, the average over all cheese supply being 19,238 d. per lb butterfat. These payments to cheese suppliers also constitute a record for the Waikato.

Four cheese plants were installed by the Association during the past year, and arrangements have been made for a tifth installation during the coming spring. At the request of the Association's suppliers at Matamata, arrangements have also been made for the erection of a Dried Milk Factory at that township, which promises to give increased stability and prosperity to the industry there. Your Directors recommend that the sum of £5,891 10s 4d, which stands to Beserve Fund, be appropriated against the waste of assets brought about by the closure of some of the Association's creameries. During the financial year the Association resumed, under the provisions of the Daily Industry Act, 2,716 of its shares. During the year the Association acquired shares in the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company, Limited, this being the Association's proportion of the responsibility entered into by the Dairy Companies of the province to secure increased storage accommodation. The Directors who retire by rotation this year are John Thomas "SJoung and Alfred Martyn Barriball, who have respectively represented the Upper and Lower Waikato districts. Both gentlemen offer themselves for re-election, and, in the absence of other nominations, Mr Young is returned without opposition. The poll is being taken determine the representation for the Lower Waikato district. The Auditor, Mr Seering H. Matthews, F.P.A. (N.Z), F.N.Z.A.A., offers himself for re-election. Dividend Warrants, with final payments for butterfat, will be issued directly after the adoption of this report."