PRODUCTIVE TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 79, 12 July 1910, Page 7

PRODUCTIVE TARANAKI.

THE GROWTH OF DAIRYIXU, Writes the Wellington Dominion:— Just after the down of the "forties," the white pioneers of Taranaki disembarked at New Plymouth. At that time there were few indications that the bush-clad area around Mount Egmont would become one of the most prosperous dairying states in>the world. The hardships entailed in the removing of that cloak of verdure are not fully realised to-day. The man of lfllO puts in concrete cowyards, hygienic cowsheds, and milkingmachines, and talks of improvements and up-to-dateness. His ideas are laudable, but sometimes—generally, when lie happens to be a man who is new to the province—he forgets that he has started when the pioneer halted. However, most of the pioneers were monetarily successful. For years very little progress of a "showy - ' nature was made, hut the change from forest to pasture was ceaseless, and before the 'utilitarian axe of the settle;- was evolved a province so promising that it was called the garden of Xew Zealand. In these days of butter bringing in the vicinity of a shilling a pound, some may be surprised to hear that, there was a time when the Taranaki buttermakers did not get fourponoe a pound for their manufactures. Even if the price were nominally fourpence, they did not get that amount in cash; they had to take it out in groceries. The farmer's wife was usually the butter-maker, and the whole of her factory appliances could always be stowed inside the then inevit-able'haiid-cliurn. The farmer was his own butter distributor, and he arrived in town every few days with his dairy produce carefully covered with cabbage leaves.

The forerunners of the co-operative factories were the Crown Company. The Crown Company had factories in many parts of the province, and 'in those earlier days must, have had an enoimous interest in the industry. 'With the advent of the 'co-operative system the receiving depots of the company began to disappear, and now very few of the old buildings can be seen. With the wholesale adoption of cooperation the rate of progress was greatly accelerated, and with expansion and competition came improvements. The establishment of valuable business connections in England; was another stimulant to the industry.

Statistical information is sometimes a difficult matter to treat interestingly, but in the case of Taranaki the figures are so striking that they are not in the least "dry." There are about a million and a-quarter acres of land in occupation in 'the province, out of about 38 million acres occupied in the Dominion. TBie proportion under cultivation is much in favor of Taranaki, which has about a million acres thus occupied, while the total for the Dominion is not quite 16,000,000 acres. The holdings in Taranaki average about 105 acres, and for the whole of New Zealand t 200 acres. Taranaki has over 36,000 acres under crops, and 200 acres fallow land. Over a million acres are in grass—there are 188,000 acres of sown grass on ploughed land, 758,000 acres of sown grass on unplougherd land, and 264,000 acres of native grasses. Oats are, the popular grain, representing 9200 acres of the 12,190 acres used for grain growing. Proportionately the province grows more mangolds than any other part of the Dominion, and 24,000 acres of its area is occupied in green crops. Xot a great deal of fruit-growing' is done, but about Pungarelm, Bahotu, and New Plymouth there are solrte excellent orchards.

The cattle total 2(10,000, of which 134,000 are cows and heifers used for dairying'. There are over 6000 cows and 3800 heifers kept for breeding purposes.

The most interesting tables concerning Taranaki are • those recording its exports. The province leads in the exportation of dairy produce. According to the Government statistics in the annual of 1901), which is the latest compilation available, the expdrts of butter from Taranaki that year were valued an £480,196, which was more than forty per cent, of the Dominion output. In | the same year the cheese sent away from the province totalled £391,153, which was well over half the cheese output of the Dominion, which amounted to £765,395. The dairy produce (butter and cheese) exported from the whole of New Zealand was worth £1,911,409, of which Taranaki's share was £871,349. The quantities of its two chief products exported were: Cheese, 139,740cwt.; butter, 96,460e\vt. In L 904 the value of the'; province's cheese export was only £72,848, of which £40,400 worth went through' New (Plymouth and Waitara, and £32,442 worth thrqugh Patea. Summing up Taranald's productiveness shows that from about a million acres of land comes nearly half our dairy exports, besides frozen mutton £29,000,. frozen beef £155,000, wool £73,402, and' other items.

There are over 800 factories ana creameries in the province. There is still room for a good deal of expansion in the industry, and some fine land is being opened up by the Strati fu'd-Onga-rue railway.