OUR INDUSTRIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1004, 21 June 1930, Page 6

OUR INDUSTRIES

This is the tewentieth of a series of informative articles that are being published in THE SUN iceekly throughout 1930 , describing ma\iy of New Zealand's most important industries.

For Making “Weet-Bix” MACHINERY DESIGNED HERE FOR SHIPPING ABROAD ALMOST daily the list of articles made in New Zealand widens. A few years ago “Made in N.Z.” covered a bare dozen or two different manufactures; today it covers every* phase of individual, commercial, agricultural and national life. Shortly there must be added to the list the manufacture of the plant that makes the products to be sold here. A case in point is the recent manufacture in Auckland, against overseas competition, of machinery necessary for the making of “Weet-Bix.”

Generally speaking, New Zealand engineers have found that It is uneconomical to make machinery here, because the market is not sufficiently large to repay the cost of the original patterns. An exception must be made, how-

marked by the manufacture of the machinery for making “Weet-Bix.” Grain Products, Ltd., makers of "WeetBix,” is a New Zealand company, using New Zealand-grown wheat, New Zealand-made cartons and boxes, and in fact in every possible department

ever, in tlte case of agricultural machinery. In many branches of agricultural science New Zealand leads the world, and a good deal of experiment has been made in suitable farm and dairy machinery. So successful have these experiments been that today a considerable amount of agricultural machinery is made here for export to other parts, of the world. Quite a new departure, however, is

using the products of New Zealand. When it was found necessary to manufacture another complete set of machines to ship to South Africa for the manufacture of “Weet-Bix” there, New Zealand engineering firms were given the first opportunity. They were not without keen international competition, but the management considered that the quality of New Zealand workmanship was higher than

that of the overseas machinery, and j at the price was practically the same, j The Sun has had the opportunity of inspecting the finished product, which, by the way, was manufactured hy Mr. L,. Sterricker, of Khyber Pass Hoad. It is much more complicated than appears from the illustration on this page. The same engineering firm has designed and built intricate machinery used by packers of spices, jellies, and other condiments, and these have been delivered throughout the Dominion. Sterricker’s do not specialise in re- j pairing imported machinery as much j as designing and building machinery j of all kinds to meet the requirements j of local manufacturers. This firm is also successfully manufacturing and competing -with imported goods in two automatic hardware lines —electric conduit saddles and seals for butter boxes. From these experiences it is obvious that if the local engineers would equip modern shops they would secure ample' orders from NewKealand industries.

The machinery illustrated performs j only one of the processes in the mak- | ing of "\Veel Hix.” From the arrival | of the grain to the final packing of the “Weet-Bix” biscuits, machinery of all kinds is used as much as possible for two reasons —to ensure absolute ac curacy and uniformity, and to keep j food stuffs from being touched by hand.