OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 193, 24 November 1910, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW

J>y R. J. EAMES. Xo. 5. [All Rights Reserved.] ' THE HEART OF THE INDUSTRY. Throughout South Taranaki dairy factories aiul creameries present the most familiar of architectural eil'ect. In what has been called the heart of the industry the greatest distance by which these evidences of co-operation are separated is about four miles. The most prolific part is that area which supplies three very important factories —Riverdale, Kaupokonui and Jolls. These factories cover contiguous country, and handle the milk from farms occupying, say, 80,640 acres. But this area includes the townships of Manaia, Okaiawa and Otakeho, as well as a lot of land occupied for fattening, approximately 15,000 acres. So that G5,G4y acres may be about the area serving the three factories we have named, and the cash received for their produce last year was: ' *• ■*aaert' , £ Kaupokonui 121,042 Jull's 110,039 Riverdale 37,500

J Taking 1i.1.1i-lO acres as being correct, it would appear tliat this land is producing, all round, between £4 and £5 per acre; although roads, dwellings, yards and cropping areas have still to be allowed for. Tile example as it starfds will serve to indicate the great grass fertility of the <li.-trict. But it was i -kown ncently, by the secretary of the 1 Jiiverdale Co., that some of the suppliers to his taetyrv had taken nearly £[) per acre from their farms for butter-fat alone. from that sum the receipts ranged down to £3 per acre—which represented farms only partially devoted to dairying, it is not diilicult to account for the evidences of prosperity on every hand, when it is remembered that the greater part of £275,000 in cask has been distributed over such a small territory within a year, And this season an all-round increase of 10 pr cent, is expected. , THE PROJECT COXCEUSING- PIGS, In a foniiei' article the movement to- ' wards the formation of a co-opeiutive bacon business was mentioned. For tile time being' th? project has fallen through. Farmers are curiously conservative, In the dairying industry co-operation was forced upon them. It proved sKpmsful. The companies, witii much trepidation, embarked upon the butter-box iMkin" easiness. It was also successful. Necessity forced them into the refrigerating business. That also turned out welL The condition of the port and shipping at Patea imposed disadvantages upon fr'outh Taranaki butter—so a new boat was bought! Each fresh co-operative venture has been the child of Necessity. When the price of pigs falls very low there is much talk of co-operation. When it rises a little tile fight stops. It has stopped now. The idea at Mangatoki and Eltham was to create an association on the lines of the Esjmont Box Co. and the West Coast Refrigerating Co. It was proposed that co-opera-tive dairy companies should take up six £1 shares for every ton of butter produced at the factory, and two £1 shares tor evevy ton of cheese. In conversation with the writer, one of the advocates of the scheme said: '"lt will come; it must come, some day. We" farmers ought to be a bundle of sticks in this matter. Why, as soon as the project was outlined pig-raisers throughout this district became wortlj the consideration of English nic-ichants. I our of the biggest houses at Home jumped at the notion, and offered to give liberal advances without recourse for whatever supplies we could send them. There is money in P'" s money that is nee-ded to help pay the interest and the rent —but we will need to grow them and to market them in a different fashion to the one we adopt to-day "

AT THE FACTORIES.

If the individual farmer is very often cramped for funds, and finds himself in the position of being unable to make expenditures which would return themselves fourfold, the fanner in the aggregate does not suffer to the same extent. This is amply shown by a visit to the dairy factories throughout Taranaki. Every year finds some improvement. Old machinery is discarded; the latest , methods are adopted. The graders' certificates create competition, and every manager naturally expects his plant to lie as up-to-date as that of any of his competitors. Although Riverdaie prides itself upon being "the biggest cheese factory in the world under one roof.'' it is perhaps to the Kaponga Dairy Co. that the laurel must be awarded for being the most modern and best equipped cheese factory in New Zealand. That is certainly the' case so far as the curing room is concerned, which experts have declared to he unexcelled by anything m Canada. The room i.s perfectly insulated, and it is claimed that by its use 2 per cent, of moisture can be saved during the curing. Cheese makers and factory directors will realise what a bis thing 2 per cent, means on large quantities. But here again one finds difference of opinion. Said an opposition manager (if co-operative factories can, or ought to, be in opposition to each other): "Is it a saving? Supposing the shrinkage ! does not take place in t'ne factory, will i it not occur on the voyage, in the hands of merchants, or on the counters of the retailers? If a retailer finds hs cannot cut as many pounds out of a chnese as j he expected, would he not be likely to I shy <jlear of that cheese in future? If j the factories sold on Xew Zealand I weights it would be all right, but as it is —what do you think?" Mangotaki factory led the way in the process of pasteurisation, and the chairman i of directors there is so impressed with the purity of the finished article—and the splendid condition in which the butter opens up at Home—that he vigorously affirms timt pasteurisation should be made compulsory. The honor of being the first factory in Taranaki to successfully pasteurise belongs to ! Whenuakura. When Kaponga is but-ter-making, its cream is also treated after Pasteur. At the tail end of last season, when stale milk was being separ-1 ated (the factories only beitisr opened I every other day) Kaponga butter was ] graded from 1)2 to R5. " The secret of success, especially in handling milk like that." said the manager, '' is pasteurisation." It is the firm belief at llangatoki that H>e slirrhtly added cost is nothing compared with the permanent lienefifs which will accrue from pa <teuris:tfion._ .lust now there are complaints amongst factory managers that butter which is not pasteurised is penalised by. the Government graders. If the allegations were true, ike department would ]be acting outrageously. Perhaps the jfdet : is that pasteurised butter, on its o\in merits, commands the higher points. I SHARE MILKIXU AND WAGES.

When the system of slr.ire-milkmsf v. - a,s I introduced into ths district it wjts gen- I erally a case of ''halves, partner, Halves." | So far as the returns vyere co.ncijrned— i half the milk cheque, hatf the pigs, half the calves. The owner supplied tie land, I the sheds, a house and the cows! the i milker supplied. the' lajagr. .. jlimighqut. a succession of g'ooil 'season's it' lias heeir a common experience that the "halves"-;

family—soon found himself in a position to lie a farm proprietor himself. lint as the value of butter-fat advanced, the price of land went soaring upwards, and the cost of cows increased, the man on shares had to be content with two-lifths of the milk cheque and later on with one-third. But since butter-fat. on the ! one hand, tends to return still more, and on the other hand land and cows grow dearer, the halves man must necessarily accept a smaller proportion of tile milk cheques (although his share in cash may he worth nearly as much as it was when he received a bigger proportion of the cheque but the price of butter-fat was less). Some contracts have even been made this year where the milker is to receive one-fourth of the milk cheque (although he may still gg halves in respect of calves and pigs). Of course, circumstances frequently alter cases. There is no hard and fast rule. But "thirds" seem to be the most common agreement between herd owners and share milkers.

Just now 110 man or boy who can milk, or who is willing to learn the art, need talk of unemployment in New Zealand. TliYre are placas available in plenty in Tarnnnki, and doubtless in all the other dairying districts of New Zealand. 'Milkers nowadays get £2 and £2 2s (id if tl;ev '"tucker" themselves, or 2us and 30s arid "found."''