MAKING OF RENNET.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1918, Page 6

MAKING OF RENNET.

DAIRY FACTORIES DIFFICULTIES. At the annual meeting of the Normanby Dairy Company on Friday, Mr Spratt remarked that they must have had a poor lot of veils this last season, as apparently only £l3 odd had been paid for them. The secretary explained that this sum represented the company's loss in veils. Mr Laurent asked if it was a fact that the rennet made by the rennet company at Patea was not fit to use? If this was the case, why go on buying veils? The chairman replied that the rennet made at Patea was not satisfactory. He believed that Mr Cooper, of Mangatolri, was going to conduct the operations this year, and he trusted that the rennet would then be satisfactory, A Shareholder: Our own manager lias made rennet, and it was satisfactory. The manager: I have said right from the start that no man in New Zealand knows anything about rennet manufacture. We read that .professors are in charge at Home and on the Continent, and although I have made rennet, and made cheese from it that, has passed first grade, I would not guarantee anything connected with it. Mr Clement: I understand that when the veils have been Iccpt longer that they are better. The manager: I think veils should be 12 months old before used. The chairman remarked that in regard to the Rennet Co., although the article so far manufactured had not been satisfactory, the existence of the company had been a benefit to the dairying industry. Had there been no Rennet Co. the probability was that dairy companies would have had to pay a higher price for their rennet supplies. Mr Gibson: The Rennet Co. has notspent any capital. The chairman: They have gone along very slowly. Mr Laurent understood that the Hawcra Co. made its own rennet week by week, and it had been found satisfactory. The manager believed that that was so, but the manager there was in the same position as he (the speaker). He was making a satisfactory rennet, but ho probably would not be prepared to guarantee anything. In comparison with the price of Home-made rennet tho price the company paid for veils did not make experimenting a very profitable proposition. He (Mr Hop'croft) used from eight to ten veils to make a gallon of rennet, and the Patea man, who visited the Normanby factory, went away with tho impression that he would use up to 12 veils to the gallon, and that would make it very expensive. Imported rennet had been up as high as £25 per keg of ten gallons c.i.f. Wellington, but the Normanby Company had purchased a, good deal at £2l 10s. Mr Gibson asked what they intended to do during the coming season. Were the veils to be sent Home or to Patea ? T-lic secretary said that they wore awaiting instructions. ■ Mr Spratt contended that they must keep Patea going in the meantime, but after the war they would have no hope of competing with the Home prices, even with veils at 3d each, So long, however, as Patea could turn out a fair article, and so keep a check on the price of the imported article, that was all they should bother about. Mr Spratt moved that the price of veils for the coming season be 5s for first grade, 2s (kl for second grade, and Od for third grade. Mr Were contended that, there should be only one price through air the factories. In reply to a question, the, manager said that the Rennet Company recognised three grades- of veils and had paid on those grades'. Tiie Pa-tea Company graded the veils and returned the grade notes, and the same thing was done when they sent them to Wellington. All he (the speaker) knew was that the Rennet Company was prepared to pay for three grades at Is Gd, Is, and 6d. He had graded the veils before sending them to Patea, and found that there was only a slight difference in the placing of one or two, and in the case of Wellington there was practically no difference. He might mention that in the first place the Rennet Company sent the veils to England, and before that the Dairy Division ;;ent them, and tho report they received from the manufacturers there was that the New Zealand veils were ideal for rennet making. The resolution was carried.—Star. I