FARMERS' FREEZING WORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 244, 24 March 1915, Page 3

FARMERS' FREEZING WORKS.

FKESH PROPOSAL AFOOT.

CO-OPERATIVE COMPANY TO BE

FORMED.

1 WITH £100,00,) CAPITAL. i About a year ago, or rather less. meetings were held at Stratford for the purpose of forming a farmers' co-operat-ive freezing works company. Provisional directors were elected, 'and they arranged for an expert to visit the site under offer. After several months of inactivity, that is, as far as the intending shareholders were concerned, the promoters formally announced that owing to the war the proposal would not be Rone on with at present. Other districts who had had similar projects under way at the time did not allow the grass to firow under foot, and kept on. The war which stopped that scheme has been instrumental in producing another similar project,'the congestion in the freezing works of the Dominion generally and the statement that freezing works companies in Taranaki were purchasing m other districts and freezing on their own account in preference to givin.r space to the Taranaki stock-raisers" causing losses to the farmers and discontent with the existing conditions. The natural outcome was; the calling- of a meeting of farmers to discuss again the advisability of launching out into the freezing works business on co-operative fines. Ihe meeting was held at Strattord yesterday, convened by Messrs Won King A . W. Budge, W. A. MoCuW.au Wdfred Perry. K. Marfcll, and E. Walter Despite the boisterous and wet weather, which militated against .Stratford s usual Tuesday crowd, there was a very fair attendance. Mr ,T T Otiijin, of Eltham, was voted to 'the chair.

In his opening remarks, which were oxcmplnrily brief, Mr Quinn sni(l tlmt the object of the meeting was to float a company involving the'sum of £IOO- - His idea was that nothing should be done until at least eight thousand £.i shares had been taken up, which was quite little enough for starting a business of this nature. Or.e question that would naturally lie asked wisWhere would the works be situated' He understood that experts had recently inspected various sites a „d they were all agreed that the site in the vicinity of Lcpperton. was a very satisfactory one, possessed of all the necessary facilities for railage, etc.. and having the advantage of proximity to two ports.

AN URGENT NECESSITY. Air. W. A. McCutchan referred to t.ie cllorts made last season to start co-operative freezing works, and traversed the work that had been done. The site favored, and referred to by the chairman, was still available. The question -of freezing works was prominently before them now because the farmers were, so to speak, tied in a knot by' their inability to dispose of their fat stock, and the time had arrived when they must do something for themselves. They i wanted co-operative freezing works, and lie was quite satisfied that the district would provide sufficient stock to keep them going. A useful guide to them at this time was the review of what had been done elsewhere by farmers in co-operation for this very purpose. He referred to the Tailiap'e proposal, which was in the air last season when the Taranaki project was first mooted. That scheme was now under | way, and practically "going," whilst ours had beeen dropped. Now 1 , the [ whole matter was started de novo. The jTaihane Company had been floated'with a capital of .£IOO,OOO, and had gone to allotment with 8000 shares of £5 each, of which it was proposed to call "p only 10s in the £. The Bank of New Zealand had advanced £25,000 on the security of a joint and several guarantee covered by a debenture on the uncalled capital, making a total working capital of £15,000. In his opinion, thi s amount was inadequate. Mr. AfeCutehan cited the Waingawa works, started in the Wairarapa district in the face of keen opposition. That was the outcome of the splendid work done by Air. J. C. Cooper, who was enthusiastic and. a great man for detail, and who went ahead undeterred by the tlireats of competition of the large established companies. What was the position at. the cud of four years' business? Mr. Cooper, now chairman of directors, had made a statement the 'other day that the, company started with a capital of £OO,OOO, of which £52,000 had now bcci, paid up. The works had had to- be enlarged twice, increasing the freezing Capacity by 100 per cent, and the storage capacity by 1.50 per cent. Even then the company was blocked for room, and it was now proposed to issue fresh £1)0,000 capital, so as to increase the killing capacity of the Waiiigsuv.i jworks to 3500 sheep daily, and the storage in proportion. Mr. McCutchan expressed his belief that there was no district in New Zealand to compare with Taranaki as a grazing district. As far as Taranaki wft concerned it had been an excellent season for grass. and a great fattening season, but of what use had it been. Thev were unable to ship their fats. There were 7500 carcases in the Waitara freezing works now awaiting shipment. A Home cargo boat was expected shortly to lift,Booo carcases, and then there would be no boat again until the middle of April. So that Waitara had room for very little more stock. Messrs Borthwick & Sons, the proprietors of those works, were a splendid firim and men of the highest integrity, but they were there to make money—and they were making it fast. He was convinced, and so were most of the Taranaki farmer.-!, that there was more in their cattle and sheep than they were r<t present receiving.. He, with others, thought the arrangements made for the disposal nf their fat stock would be more satisfactory if they themselves controlled the business, and for that reason he believed the farmers should form this proposed co-operative freezing works company. This was only-Ac first of a series of meetings to ml held at the various centres, ancLffljiortly the farmers at Inglewood, ■■nam, Uruti, and other places meetings and each would appojßßa committee, and he hoped that tljßpoinpany would be on a good a couple of months.

THE SITK FIRST. Mr. 'Fred Bayly, who followed, urged strongly that tlir- mooting should first discuss the question of sito, about which lie feared tlieve would be some dilTiculty. Lepperton bad been talked about, but there was the objection that it was too far away from the towns, and tlmt the company would be faced with the heavy expense of building houses for the workmen. They should also keep in mind the necessity for obtaining waferpower, in order to economise in tile fuel account. A voice: There'-; plenty of power ill the Tatea! Tiie chairman considered that to discuss site now was like putting fho can before the horse. The fiist. thill" to stttle was this: "Are we going to stnrt a farmers" freezing works or not?" Tk> fixing of Ih<> site was n matter for cvnerts, and their recommendations should be followed, irrespective of the wishes of Hie towns or anv minor consideration. Mr. Bayly agreed, but said that they should know through which port the 1 produce would be shipped—Waitara or

New Plymouth. Before they said they would form a company they must know what svas to be the outlet. The chairman said that the site at ! Lcpperton would leave, them two strings to their bow, being handy to both port*. He thought that the discussion of site was a matter for a later stage of the nice ing. Mr. Bayly said that the prescn' Waitara works.were capable of dc'"'-g with the whole of Taranaki's im-'. export if there were carriers available. The speaker further stated his conviction that the settlers of Taranaki would not provide the whole of the capital —some financial institution would have to put in ,-£;i0,000 or so. Mr. Clms. F. Young: Would I be out of order in asking what was the opinion of the experts as to the site for the works?

The chairman said he understood that the promoters', of a company a short time ago had had experts over different sites that had been offered at Moturoa, Stratford, Inglewood, and elsewhere, and that the experts' opinion was that the site offered at Lcpperton was practically an ideal one for the purpose.

EXPERTS FAVOR LEPPERTON.

Mr. A. W. Budge, as one of those deputed to take the expert to the sites, confirmed this, and added that whilst the site at Leppcrton was in every way suitable it had attracted Mr. Panton, the expert, principally on account of the excellent facilities 'for drainage. Few people, said Mr. Budge, valued the importance of drainage in a matter of this kind, but good drainage was absolutely essential. The system of plough'-ing-in the drainage had not proved successful, owing to the stuff having a tendency to form a skin which prevented further soakage. Millions of gallons of washings and waste had to he disposed of. From the site at Lcpperton the stuff could be run direct into the sea by about three miles of pipes, if necessary, and there was also a probability of their being allowed to drain into the stream running trough the property under offer, as there' were only three houses situated on the river between the site and the sea, and none of these drew its water from the watercourse in question. It was certain that they would not be allowed to run drainaye into the Patea. or anv river in the Stratford district.

TIME FOR ACTrO.Y. Air. Nathan said there was really no necessity for Air. AlcCutchan to 'have gone so far afield to discover what farmers could do by co-operation. Let them look altheir co-operative butter and cheese companies iii Taranaki, all worked on the joint and several guarantee of the dairy farmers themselves. Following on that had come the cooperative box-making company, the cooperative bacon company,, and the purchase of their own bush'area for milling the timber for butter boxes and "cheese, crates. If these small farmers could do this, while working mostly on 'borrowed capital, surely the people interested in this venture could manage to finance the comparatively small capital required. The whole danger of the flotation of a i company of this kind was in starting with insufficient capital. They 'had an instance in Patea, where the "directors, in order to get rid of their liability to the bank, had been buying stock cheap in other districts and freezing'it, to the present detriment of their own shareholders. In the samo-way the Waitara proprietary concern was" not out for the formers' interests, but for their own. H they could make more money by buying stock in Waikato and Hawkc's Bay than in Taranaki, "why, we would be fools to blame them," he said. "The man who lies down for others to walk over him deserves to be walked on, and deserves to be kicked; and as long as the Taranaki farmer quibbles over little matter* of site and --o on, so long will he be kicked." Talking of sites, they must remember that proximity i'o centres of population was a good thing to avoid, for people were none too fond of the Effluvia sometimes arising, and caused much trouble, too, if they contaminated anv water supply. As for Air. Bayly's difficulty about' providing house accommodation that could w"ll be left to the speculator and the Government lending departments.

NEW PLYAIOUTH HARBOR. READY. Air. Newton King said that, while the chairman was doubtless right in saying that the first thing to do was to decide to form the company, Mr. Bayly was still quite right in bringing forward the matters which had occurred to him. At the same time, it would not have been fair for the chairman to have refused to disclose to the meeting that in all probability the works would be established at Lepp.erton. The experts had been guided, of course, by natural conditions, proximity to railway, etc., but they had also to bear *n mind that thousands of head of cattle and thousands of sheep would come from Awakino, Afarokopa, and North Taranaki generally, so it would not do to,'build the wefks too far south to be of use to those big grazing districts. As a member of the New Plymouth Harbor Board, he could, assure the meeting that in six months' time there would be no difficulty in shipping all their output of frozen meat over the wharf at New Plymouth. There was, as a matter of fact, plenty of water at Moturoa now, but the shipping companies required a further area dredged out to make the harbor safe for a Home vessel to swing in should she break away during a storm—a remote contingency. That work was now being done. There would be a big tramp steamer—the biggest yet—here in July, but, after all, she was only a tramp, and they wanted the regular services. Speaking as a raiser of stock, he said that he felt that he could do far better for himself by shipping on his own account through a co-operative concern than he had done, in the past year.

THE COMPANY FORMED. Air. Quinn moved that the farmers' co-operative company be former, with a capital of £IOO,OOO. in 20,000 shares of £5 each, to issue 12,500 of the. shares, to be paid up to €3 per share, six shillings on application, six shillings on allotment, and six shillings each, two months thereafter until the £3 is paid, the calls being thus spread over eighteen months; and that the company do not proceed to allotment until the 'last 8000 shares (£40,000) are subscribed.

Mr. E. Marfell seconded, and expressed the opinion that the 8000 shares would easily be placed. He believed the question of site, which was only a secondary consideration, should be settled by the directors. "The first thing," he said, "is to get the works, and get the works we must." He explained that many farmers who had merely supported the original project .were keenly enthusiastic now, and, whilst he had had his doubts then as to the necessity for the works, he was now quite convinced that the works were required and that there, would be plenty of stock available. "I second the motion with all my heart, and will take up a fair number of shares." The motion was carried unanimausly. A COMMITTEE ELECTED. - The chairman invited nominations f.-r a provisional committee to work with district provisional committees to be set up at various centres all over Taranaki. The central committee, he said, would eventually elect the provisional directorate, which would thus be wholly representative of the province. Candidates were forthcoming as follows, and were elected: Messrs W. A. McCutchan, E. Marfell, A. W. Budg". [ Wilfred Perry. E. Walter, Clias. Young, and Chas. Bayly.

SITES AGAIN.' ' Mr. Chas. Young advocated limiting I the choice of sites to the area between Sentry Hill and Omata. The chairman commenced to read the opinions of Mr. Panton, the expert engaged by the provisional directors of last year's movement, but, after a protest by Mr. Marfell, it was taken in committee.

Speaking upon the report, Mr. Budge said there was a prospect of waterpower being obtainable at the Leppcrton site.

Mr. Young returned to bis point, believing that it would assist the placing or shares if tin canvassers were able to state approximately the location of the works. Thei closer they got to the Bieakwater the better it would be for' the company. Mr. Young moved that.flic site of w«,rks b e Sltll ated somewhere beOmata. ' Ul>^rton Junction, and, toll]; iw n i llo^ St f « »«w ,iot to tie t.io directors' hands, but to leave J the whole matter for them to dectl on the advice of such expert or experts as they deemed it advisabbfe io engage to report. Mr. Fred Bayly wa s entirely of the whole of the shareholders, and the studied COmmUnity ' WoUld lmVe to b ° Mr. E. Walter differed. Nearly every man when canvassed to taEe up shares would want to know immediately where the works would be.

'Some difficulty occurred lh defmins the area, and -Mr. Young's motion lapsed.

Mr Newton King moved that the site should be selected in the district between Waitara, Waiongona creamerv, and Omata. Tliis was carried. A MATTER OF POLICY.

Air. -Bayly, asked whether the company would merely freeze on farmers' account, or would the*- buy and sell -Mr. Quinn explained that the company would freeze on farmers' account .it they were prepared to ship in that way, or they would b e able to buy stock "on t.ie hooks " at current rates. But the shareholders would have first call on the works.

READY NEXT SEASON. Air. Walter asked if the works would be ready for next season.

The chairman 'said that if the company were formed in two months—but not otherwise—the works could be ready for the first lambs next December.

PUTTING THE MONEY UP. Air. McCutcb.an said this was one of the most important events in the history of the province, and he hoped everyone wduld help to the utmost of his ability, H e was not able to do a great deal himself, hut he would take one hundred £5 shares. zMr. King: I'll do the same.

Air. Marfell offered to take fifty shares, and was followed bij: McDonald Bros, 50; Nathan, 50; C. Young, 50; A. W. Budge, 50; G. S. Hobhs, 40; A. Barlow 25; E. Walter, 25; W. H. H. Young, 25; A. B. Gamlin, 25; J. T. Quinn, 25; J. ChristosEel, 25: A. W. Hodder, 20; T. Hodder, 20; Shewrv Brosh; 20; Tom Davis, 20; V. Smith, 20; Walter (Blair, 20; P. Bayly, 20; P. Mackav. 20; E. •Robertson, 20; H. Sander, 10; J. Young, 10; R. Binnie, 10; S. Gooding, 10; A. L. Perry, 10; H. Linn, 5; J. F. Young/ 5; R. E. Chapman, 6; W. H. Were, 5; j E. Eineham, .5.

A very successful meeting closed, with the custoinary compliment to the clfair,