TUAKAU BUTTER FACTORY

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 428, 22 November 1918, Page 2

TUAKAU BUTTER FACTORY

Closing Necessitated Whole Staff Sick The "moat serious aspect from a commercial point of view that has as yet developed in regard to the influenza epidemic in the Lower Waikato has been the fact that the necessity has arisen for the temporary closing of the Waikato Co op. Dairy Company's butter factory at Tuakau. Gradually the staff employed there had been stricken with the complaint and with Mr W. Roberts (the Manager) and wh»t few men were left also collapsing there was no alternative but to cease operations on Wednesday. Cream had even to be left in the vats and butter in the churns, but it is hoped that some of the same may yet be saved. Cream arriving on Thursday was as far as possible slfnt on to the Company's factory at Frankton Junction but there the Company's staff is already seriously depleted and a further output cannot be undertaken there. Learning of the Waikato Company's predicament and in order to meet an emergency which threatened no little disaster to the Company's suppliers, Mr W. Y. Kirkman, the manager of the N.Z Dairy Association's butter factory at Pukekohe, came to the rescue and on behalf of his Association offered to take delivery of the Waikato Company's cream at any of the Association's iactories. This generous proposal was gladly accepted by the Waikato Company with the result that Mr A. G. Shirley, the Company's factory manager, arrived in Pukekohe last evening and full arrangements for meeting the difficulty were made in conference with Mr Kirkman, the first instalments of cream being received at Pukekohe railway station this morning under tin personal superintendence of both Messrs. Kirkman and Shirley. The attention of suppliers is requested to the instructions advertised in this issue relative to consignments of cream. With the exception of cream in the Clevedon district, which will be dealt with at the Clevedon factory, suppliers north of Tuakau are asked to consign to Pukekohe, subject however to cream from Manukau and the peninsula being received at Waiuku. Cream from south of Tuakau should be forwarded to the Ngaruwahia factory. Suppliers are further requested" to see that the cans are fully labelled with their, names and addresses. FILLING THE BREACH. Chatting with a " Times " repre- • sentative this morning, Mr Kirkman explained that on hearing of the unfortunate occurrence at Tuakau he had only deemed it his duty to lend a friendly hand. He would, however, plead for indulgence for any slight delay that might take place at the creameries or factories—the main thing being to save the cream. The Association had only been able themselves to on thanks to volunteer labour by many of their suppliers, and it would now 1 become necessary for the Waikato Company's suppliers to also render assistance in that way. He understood that several of the Company's suppliers had already promised to i uadertake a share of duty at the . Pukekohe factory. He desired, also, to enlist the services of amateur carpenters for the making-up of butter- [ boxes, and he trusted that volunteers \ for that work would be forthcoming. . The boxes, he explained, owing to . illness of staffs at the timber mills, . now arrived in an incomplete state, i and required to be nailed together, i Mr Kirkman went on to say that . luckily the Association had fairly ! good stocks of Newcastle and southi ern coal, and, consequently, were ; able to overcome the difficulty of • supplies of cial being short from i Huntly. Their creamery managers ! at Papatoetoe, Manurewa, Diury, i Tuakau, and Otaua, he added, were all down with the " flu," but, with volunteer help, and the assistance of the Association's outdoor staff, the i breaches were being filled. Mr i Kirkman mentioned that an inhaling , apparatus had been fitted up at each of the Association's factories, and both the employees and many supi pliers underwent that process of dis- ' infection. To that he attributed the , fact that their factories were still ; able to be in operation.