WEST COAST REFRIGERATING COMPANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1919, Page 10

WEST COAST REFRIGERATING COMPANY.

ITS VALUE TO SOUTH TARANAKI. One has only to pay a visit to ,the West Coast Refrigerating Comp(any , s works at Patea to gain a comprehensive idea of the value of South Taranaki dairy produce, the whole of which passes through these works for cool storage prior .to shipment to Wellington. Incidentally one gleans some idea of the enormous strides made by the dairying industry during the past couple of decades and this progress is bound to be maintained; indeed, it will more than probably have to be considerably accentuated as the high values now ruling for land must cause properties no* held for grazing to be cut up for dairying, and on those now utilised for dairying the most intensive methods oi larming must be employed if the land is to be made to pay. The Weßt Coast Refrigerating Company is, of course, a cooperative concern, owned by the South Taranaki dairy factories, and through them by the dairy themselves. The works were established in 1901, commencing operations in November of that year. The first directorate comprised Captain Johnston, of the old Waverley Dairy Company (chairman), Messrs. A. C. Pease (Mangatoki), W. Gadsby (Kakaramea), J. J. Campbell (Kaupokonui) and the late T. L. Joll. Mr. F. WGrainger, the present manager, was in charge of the works, and has maintained control ever since, the success achieved being in a great measure attributable to his guiding hand. The capital of the company was £5,000 at its inception. The works, which are situate on the banks of the Patea River, alongside the railway station, are in an excellent position both for receiving and shipping produce, as they are constructed so that the produce can be delivered by gravitation along a chute direct from the chamber to the ship's hold. The initial works were constructed with a storage capacity of 12,000 boxes of. butter, cheese'in those days being unknown as far' as its manufacture was concerned, though a perusal of the figures shows how - gradually South Taranaki turned completely to cheese- The refrigerating plant consisted of an 18-ton .Hercules steam-driven plant. . During the first season 62,000 boxes of butter of a value of about £120,000 were handled. That winter the storage space was doubled, the 18-ton plant giving place to a 30-ton plant, and roughly 100,000 boxes of butter were handled that season. In 1903 cheese first made its appearance, some orates being received from the Ttiverdale Dairy Company, and from then on cheese began to increase and butter to decrease until in a few years all the l«ctori»» had &U9M

the output of butter was at its height 142,000 boxes being handled. In 1905, 3000 crates of cheese were received. In 1907 factories began to manufacture cheese in earnest, 60,000 crates being received. In 1908 butter had decreased to 77,000 bos*, and cheese had risen to 99,000 crates. In 1910, the first year of the winter show, butter had dropped to 62,000 boxes and cheese risen to 113,000 crates. The output continued to increase until the last year under normal conditions, viz., the 1915-16 season, when butter had dropped to 14,837 boxeß and cheese risen to 197,649 crates. Butter, in fact, had quite given place to cheese as the butter mentioned here is whey butter—a by product of cheese factories. The local value of this produce at a conservative estimate was £1,183,000, or about ten times the value of the output 15 years previously. Owing to congested conditions of shipping it is impossible to give returns of each subsequent year, as the works were not cleared from season to season.

This enormous increase, of course, necessitated continual additions to plant and machinery, but the directors were afive to the position, and always able to cope with the increase. The position was greatly accentuated during the war, owing to the acute shortage of shipping, but the dairy factories rose to the occasion, and by supplying the necessary capital, whie\\-was increased to £75,000, enabled the company to increase its storage accommodation, so that with the storage available at Patea and the subsidiary storage at Hawera, the company is able to hold 150,000 crates of cheese, and the plant now consists of a 320 b h.p. suction gas plant and total refrigerating power of 95 tons. In addition the company has under its control stores at Mangatoki and Kaupokonui Dairy Company, erected by the respective companies, capable of storing an additional 35,000 crates, thus giving storage for practically a year's output. In the early stages t,he company was dependent on the Patea Shipping Company's steamers which carried its pro-. duce to Wellington under contract, 'but in 1912 the company purchased the Patea Shipping Company's interest and thus became owners of the Kapuni, ljawera, Mana and Kiripaka. The latter two have since been sold and will be replaced by boats of, a larger tonnage, as the improvements now in progress at the mouth of the river will permit of the ingress and egress of larger boats. Captain Johnson retained the chairmanship of the directorate continuously until August 1917, when he retired, and was succeeded by Mr. A. C Pease, the present chairman, who haß held a seat on the directorate continuously since its' inception. The other directors are T. Walsh (Jolls), J. S. McKay (Inaha), J E. Corrigan (Riverdole), and T. A. Bridge (Kaupokonui)