OPUNAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1921, Page 7

OPUNAKE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) The twenty-second annua! meeting of the Opunake Dairy Company was held on Saturday. The chairman (Mr. A. G. Baylis) presided. The report stated that the total payments throughout the season, together .with amounts standing to the credit of suppliers, represent 2s 8 2/5d per lb of butter-fat. The chairman remarked that this was a record for the company and also the coast. (The Rahotu Company’s actual pay-out was about equal to this). The total amount > paid out Was £22,526 10s sd. The same directorate as last year was re-appoint-ed. namely, Messrs. J. De Castro, E. G. Baylis, W. L. F. Chambers, M. Hickey, R. Campbell, J. Humphries and W. Wan. Mr. E. G. Baylis was re-appointed chairman. and Mr. H. J. Newman auditor 1 . An honorarium of £35 was voted to the chairmar.; £l's to the manager, £lO to the butter-maker, and £5 to the creamery manager. The Opunake seniors have only lost one match in the second round, so far, that against Hawera, on the Hawera grourid, by the narrow margin of three points. If Opunake get their full team away, Tukapa will find them a stronger combination than when they met the greens in the first round. The heavy seas that have been running recently undermined one of the tourist whares in Middleton’s Bay, causing it to collapse, the fall shivering its timbers. One can get an idea of the necessity of the County Council putting down a thoroughly good main road, by, perusing the annual reports of the dairy companies in Egmont. About every ten miles on the main road there is a dairy factory, and the average payment for milk runs out at about £30,000 for every ten miles. Tn addition to this there is the cartage of the finished article to the railway. When the back countr}’- doubles its productiveness the traffic will s£ill increase, even if the value of butter and cheese decline. It will pa} 7 local bodies to put down the very best roads possible. The roads of the future in this country will have to carry double the present traffic. Present methods of road-making will have to be considerably improved to meet the coming traffic. Smoke is now issuing from the dairy factories, and the milk carts have commenced to gather round the milk stage. In a few weeks’ time the factories will be busy again. Be it said of the staunchness of the dairy factory chairmen that they have turned a smiling face to the future, and have spoken no pessimistic words. In the face of so much uncertainty a genial optimism goes a long way to encourage the steady plodding farmer. All our local carpenters have'plenty of work, and, house building is on the increase. It will not be long before the house cow is pushed off the common. The railway reserve will be the only land vacant for grazing. Some of the Town Board, roads could do with a little metal. The Board . should engage the county crusher during : the summer months and have a few hundred yards crushed in reserve. A depot for this purpose should be made on a solid foundation and a permanent one. The coming of the electric light, the cottage hospital, and other lines of activity ’ that follow in the wake should induce 1 our city fathers to be prepared for street improvements.