THE SHIPPING DIFFICULTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1917, Page 3

THE SHIPPING DIFFICULTY.

PROVISION OF STORAGE SPACE,

MANGATOKI TAKES ACTION.

. The shipping problem last year caused dairy factories considerable anxiety, not only on account of the difficulty of shipping the produce and consequent delay in financial matters, but also because the available cool storage accommodation was not anything like adequate to cope with the volume of produce offering. As a result there was great congestion, and cheese had to be stored in any building that was available, the buildings in many cases being unsuitable. Besides the risk of deteriorating in quality, there wag also the serious loss in shrinkage owing to the length of time the cheese was held in unsuitable storage before being graded, payment being made according to grade notes, less 222y 2 per cent lor storage. The prospects of an even greater congestion this year, owing to the fact that there appears no likelihood of more steamers arriving than last year, and moreover there is a considerable quantity of produce already in the stores, has caused dairy factory directors to seriously Consider the provision of additional storage. In >iorth Taranaki the Taranaki Producers' Freezing Company is erecting additional storage at Moiuroa, whilst in South Taranaki various factories arctaking action.

At .Uangatoki on Tuesday the chairman (Ur. J. Marx), explained that the company had purchased the property owned bv Mr. Cooper just across the river. Although the u'bffSc was too large for their requirements the ground, was" very suitable for the purpose of erecting cool storage, a s they would be able to excavate on solid ground and obtain earth temperature, and would bo able to inslal a cool blast from their refrigerator opposite, and so hold the cheese at a good temperature. It was absolutely necessary to have storage accommodation, as the Patea works could only hold ten weeks supply i n the flush. In fact, the storage accommodation now in New Zealand would only hold ten weeks' supply, this including the 50,000 crate storo at Wellington. With the building thoy were erecting and the space in the Patea works they could hold nine months' output. He pointed out that the directors had three proposals before them, viz., extra accommodation at each branch, joining with other companies and erecting storage at the railway at Elthani; or erecting a store at Mangatoki. They submitted the schemes to Mr. Cuddio, who reported favorably on the latter two, stating that while" the store at Eltham would be more convenient, he would not object to the produce being graded in their proposed store at Mangatoki. The other companies joining with them in the Eltham proposal had not carried it out, so Mangatoki were building a store about 90 feet by 40 feet, a contract having already been let. It was first proposed to build a smaller store, but the directors derided in favor of the larger proposal, so as to keep their produce in better condition and enable them to have it graded. Other factories, such as Eltham, Joll's, Riverdale, Kaupokonui, were also considering the question of increased storage. Factories which were not I building had an idea that this would giVe increased storage at Patea, but the directors at Patea had decided to allot space to each factory pro rata to the shares held.