PROPOSED BUTTER, CHEESE AND BACON-CURING FACTORY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 948, 9 May 1882, Page 2

PROPOSED BUTTER, CHEESE AND BACON-CURING FACTORY.

A meeting was held in the Volunteer Hall last Saturday evening to consider what steps should be taken.to establish a butter, cheese and bacon-curing factory in this district.

On the motion of Mr K. F. Gray, Mr John Hayhurst took the chair. The Chairman said that as they had done him the honor of sleeting him their chairman he would do all he could to lay before them the objects for which the meeting had been called. He was sorry to see so few farmers present, as it indi, cated that they took very little interest in it. After having read the advertisement calling the meeting he continued to say that they all knew the important of the question they had assembled to discuss. It was a proposition to adopt a new mode of making butter and cheese, which would have the effect of making cattle more valuable, and increasing the value of their land. This could only be done by combined effort, and it was for them to say whether they would support such a movement. First of all they should abandon the idea of getting 6d per quart for their milk ; they would not get that price, but instead of getting a market for a part of their milk, as at present, they could then dispose of the surplus milk of which they could make no use now, and in that way they could sell it cheaper. An establishment such as was proposed would make the price uniform throughout the whole year, and the farmer would always be sure of a market for his milk. They would have to compete with other markets, and consequently they could give only a certain price for milk, so that I they could produce as cheap an article as elsewhere. He believed there would be no difficulty in sending produce to-the London market, and if that could be done there would be a demand for an unlimited supply of it. Besides it would increase the price of pigs. Hitherto the price got for pigs did not pay. He himself was glad, at one time to get one penny per pound for pork, but if they started this factory, they could grow any quantity of green pork, and get good prices for it, as the continental markets did not fluctuate much, and the price would always be the same. This therefore would be a very safe industry. Farmers could also keep as many horned cattle as they liked, and as the freezing process had been proved a success, and there was a consumption for animal food as well as butter and cheese in England, whose whose markets were hitherto closed against them, they would have a good means of disposing of their beef. The establishment of a butter and cheese factory would assist all these branches of farming, and as such institutions had proved successful throughout Australia, and other parts of New Zealand he saw no reason why they should not be successful here. An article taken from an American" paper, and reprinted in he Tbmoka Leader of that day showed the enormous strides such institutions had made in America for the last ten years, and it also showed that the consumption for articles produced had increased proportionately. The butter often made in this colony was no# fit for use, and you felt when you got it that the sooner it was taken off the table from you-the better you liked it. The case with butter made in factories would be

different; it would be always good and of a unform price, and consequently more of it would be used and the consumption for it would increase. It would be the same with ba,con cured by experienced men who had acquired a thorough, knowledge of that kind of|business. This meeting had been called specially to discuss the butter and cheese factory, but he believed there was another proposition to be put before the meeting. This proposition would be the cultivation of linseed and lint, a branch of farming which was very much neglected. He was astonished that the Irish farmers -in this district, who knew so much about it never cultivated it. It was a proposition of a resident of Christchurch who was anxious to start in this part of the country. In Ireland, where it is cultivated farmers prepared the straw themselves, but the proposition here was to relieve farmers of that work, and take it green into' the factory where it could be better and cheaper worked with proper appliances. The meeting had been called .to discuss the butter, and cheese question and it was for them to say whether this question should not be discussed also. He would now call on Mr Sando to ad- " dress them. Mr Sando said he wished to make a ■ personal explanation. . One person-said that if the movement had been set on foot by Insurance agents he would not have anything to do with it. This led him to believe that people thought that he (Mr Sando) was starting it from interested motives. He had no such object in view. His reason lor calling the meeting at first was that in going round amongst farmers he heard many of them expressing a desire that such an institution should be started in this district. He did not know of a more suitable district for such an institution. It was a . farming district, and it was wealthy, and so he set about collecting information respecting the matter. He visited Southland, and hr 1 seen the

manager of the Edendalo butter and cheese factorj'. established by the New Zealand and Australian Eand Company, who gave a good deal of information on he subject. Several men in this district had expressed to him their desire to .see such an institution staited, and he therefore took the liberty of calling a meeting i .which had been held the week previously, and wldch passed a resolution to gain information as to the quantity of milk that would be supplied, and the cost at which it could be got. He had also been instructed by that meeting to put an advertisement in the papers with which be complied, and that was all his connection with the movement. He would now make a few remarks to justify what he had said at the previous meeting. He quoted some figures from the Eoyal Agricultural Society’s Journal, and a gentleman present criticised them, asserting that no more than 3fd to 4d per lb could be got for cheese in this colony, and that taking cost of labor into consideration that price would never pay. He was not then prepared to answer him as he had not anticipated that the question

would be raised. But he would now gire facts and figures from a higher authority than that gentleman which would completely set aside his arguments. He referred to the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company’s prospectus. Tim leading men ‘in Canterbury were on the directory of that company, and could be taken as a higher authority., than the person he referred to. After careful inquiry those . gentlemen had come to the conclusion that butter could be sold 50 per cent dearer in England than in New Zealand, and cheese 100 per cent. This was the result of inquiries made by some of the leading men of the colony, who also asserted that there would he a market for an unlimited supply of it. And he would ask them whether they would depend on what these gentlemen said or on the assertions of the persons who stated that cheese would have to he sold at 3d per lb. The idea was to get a good article and send it home to England, and there was no doubt it would pay handsomely. The two questions for consideration he thought

were: Could butter and cheese be exported to England 1 and could milk be got ' cheap enough to enable cheese to be made so cheap as to be able to compete in the English market. He saw a report which stated that nearly all ships were being fitted up with freezing apparatus, and all that was necessary was to counter- — act the effects of the heat whilst crossing the line, he believed there was no danger of being able to send butter Home in those ships. To show that experienced people had faith in the refrigerating process, he would point out that all the insurance companies were ready to take risks at 5 per cent against fire, loss by shipwreck* or depreciation in value th-ough the heat, so that actually there was nothing to be done but ship it, and if it melted the sender would be paid full market price for it. There was also a company formed in London who were going to build vaults in which it would be kept cool until it could be sold ; so he thought with these facts before them they could not have any doubt of being able to export it successfully to England, Now th® next questiion was the price of cheese io England, and he believed it could be set down at about 8d per lb. A gentleman of large experience in cheese factories gave a lecture in Ashburton at the time the company was formed for u butter and cheese

i factory in that district, and he offered to : guarantee that f cheese would bring an ; average of 9d per lb in London. The l price of cheese was Is to Is Id in London, and he thought he might well ; set down the price of cheese at 8d per lb. There was also the inducement offered by the Government in the shape of a bonus of £SOO for the first 20 tons of of bntte.i or 50 tons of cheese landed in London Now the next question was, could milk bo got cheap enough to made cheese so that it could be sold at 8d per lb. He had made inquiries as to what quantity of milk could be got from a cow, and the answers he received were so inconsistent that they were not reliable. One man told him that as many as eight gallons of milk could be got daily from a cow, another told him 5 and another told him. 6 gallons a day, but a gentleman in the district who had had long experience had told him that an average of 3 gallons of milk could be got daily from a cow. and ha considered that more reliable. At 3d per gallon a farmer could, pay handsomely. It would give him for 10 cows on 20 acres of land £126 per year. The cost of producing this would be : rent of land £2 per acre, £4O ; half of one servant’s wages, say £ls ; wear of utensils, etc, £2 ; depreciation in value of cows, £2 ; making £59 altogether ; leaving a net profit for the year of £67. Suppose it would pay better to make butter; average the cow at the same quantity of milk ; this would give 364 lbs of butter per year for 10 cows at 8d per lb. This would give £l2 2s 8d yearly per cow, or 9s 4d less per cow than by selling milk to the factory at 3d per gallon. There is nothing allowed for the making of the butter, taking it to market, wear and tear of horse and cart, man’s wages, incidental expenses, depreciation of cows, or increase in prices of goods taken from the storekeepers in exchange for butter, Baying butter did not pay storekeepers, but what they lost on it they put on to the farmers in the price of goods. [A. voice : We’ll get Julius on to you. (Laughter.)] The speaker continued to say he was not frightened of Julius, or anybody else. Besides, all the farmers who supplied the milk might be shareholders, and thus they would have double profit—the profit ac. cruing from shares as well as the profit on the sale of milk, Taking cheese at 8d per lb the price per ton would be £BO. Say the expense of sending it Horae, etc, would amount to Id per lb, this would amount to £lO per ton, which would provide, say : freight, £2 10s per ton ; insurance, £4 ; which would leave £3 10s for incidental expenses, and this would leave a net return of 7d per gallon for milk, at least. Then it was asserted by persons of experience that the whey of the milk would pay the labor required in the factory and there would be 3d per lb of cheese to be divided as a profit amongst the shareholders. The use to which the whey could be set was to feed pigs. A piggery should be kept in connection with the factory and this would yield a considerable amount. The manager of the Edendale factory had told him he had realised from £ls to £l6 from one sow alone which he fed on whey. Ho had been told by a man of experience that there was a net profit of from 8s to 10s on every pig cured. The only question now was whether a sufficient quantity of milk could he got in the district at a payable price. There was no danger of being able to send it home to the English market and of getting a good price for it. And he wished it to be. understood that he had no intention of having any connection with it further than to set it on foot. He did not think he would go milking cows now, or curing bacon, so he could have no interest in it further than to see it started. As regards capital, £2500 would be suffi • cient to erect premises, purchase plant, buy milk until a return was got from the sale of butter and cheese, erect a bacon curing factory and buy pigs, and he thought there would be no difficulty in raising that much money in a district like this. (Applause)

The Chairman wished to direct the attention of everyone to the article published in the Tbmttka Leader. From that it appeared that creameries as they were 'called were only ten years old in America. In 1872 when they were started everyone prophecied that they would prove a failure, bnt last year 400,000,000 lbs of butter were made in them ; they had proved an immense success and he could not see why they should not be as successful here. In America cows yielded annually from 54 dols to 60 dols per cow, or about £l2 per year. The cost of producing lOOlbs of butter was discussed in America and it was agreed that the average was 30 dols or £6, The price of milk there varied evidently according to the value of land, On land worth 25d01s to SOdols an acre milk cost 40 cents per lOOlbs, on land worth over 50dols 55 cents per lOOlbs, on land worth 75 dols 65 cents, land 100 dols per acre 75 cents per lOOlbs. The price of land was somewhat similar in this colony, the cost of labor about the satqe, tlpe facilities fop exportting the same, and consequently he saw no reason why they should not succeed in butter mating here as well as in America. He saw plainly farmers would have to grow something besides wheat in this colony. When they grew wheat in America they found they had to pay

50 per c>-ut freight to send it to the Eastern markets, but now they find they can send iheir produce in (he form of butter and cheese at the rate of 5 per cent, This ought to be a consideration to farmers now, as they found wheat growing did not pay well.

.Mr Irvine thought it would be better for a farmer to sell the whole of his milk at 2d per quart than sell, a few gallons of it at 4d per quart and have to throw the balance away. Such an institution. as was proposed would prove a great benefit to the district, and he would heartily support it. He believed if 9d per lb could be got for cheese,.4d per gallon could ho got for milk. Cheese could be made for six months of the year and butter the other six months. The movement would have his heartiest support. The Chairman said no one had sufficient knowledge as, to what price could be given for milk but he believed if the manager of the factory found he could give 6d for it he would be very glad to do so. There could be no cheating with regard to the milk supplied to, the factory .as they would haye an instrument to test its value. In America one gentleman had turned about 40 farms into dairies, stocked them with nearly 400 cows, and rented both cows and farms to tenants, who were able to pay their rents. This showed how; successful these institutions were in America. Mr Irvine asked from what distance milk was supposed to be brought to the factory. The Chairman said that in America they had a factory in about every ten miles, so that milk would be brought about five miles.

Mr Sando said that -milk was carried 150 miles by rail in England. With regard to the quantity of cheese required by England he showed that 3,000,000 cwt of English-made, cheese, and 3,100,000 cwt of foreign cheese, or £26,000,000 worth of cheese was consumed , in England in 1872-3. Mr Bowron, the gentleman who had lectured in Ashburton, had guaranteed they would get 9cl per lb for New Zealand cheese in the English market. The New Zealand and Australian Land Company had expended about £ISOO upon the erection of a factory at Edendale, and it was not likely they would have done so only they knew it would pay. In looking over the article in the Temuka Leader he found that the average given by himself as to the yearly profit from a cow, and that set down in America differs only by 12s a year. He knew a farmer who used to throw 17 or 18 gallons of milk per day to.his pigs, and saw another farmer actually take milk from the cow and throw it into the pig trough. All that surplus milk would bo converted into pounds, shillings and pence if a factory was started. He was sorry there were not more farmers present to give an idea of how much milk could be supplied by the district. He believed about 400 gallons per day would be required by the factory, and he felt sure that quantity could be got. As regards the taking up of shares one gentleman had proposed to take 25 £5 shares,’ another 3, and in fact four farmers had promised to lake 55 c £s shares between them.

' Mr Connolly said he would give all the support he could to the movement. He would be able to supply 60 gallons of milk to it in the summer time.

Mr Austin also expressed himself in favor of the proposal, and pledged himself to give it all the assistance he could.

After some further conversation, Mr Sando moved—“ That this meeting considers that a butter, cheese and baconr curing factory would be a payable undertaking, and a great benefit to the district.”

The motion was seconded by Mr Pilbrow and carried unanimously. Mr Davis said it was the duty of everyone to support it and take up all the shares he could.

Mr Twomey suggested the appointment of a Committee.

Mr Sando said he wonld move the appointment of a Committee, hut as he did not know the people very well he would suggest that the meeting should propose such gentlemen as they thought fit to act. Mr Twomey suggested that they would select men from all parts of the district to act on the Committee so that they would have an agent in every part with local influence who would use his endeavors to gain support for the movement. He also suggested that a circular should be addressed to every farmer in the district setting forth the advantages of the factory system so that every one could think over it at his own fireside.

It was agreed to adopt these suggestions and the following names were submitted as the provisional committee to carry out preliminaries, viz., Messrs Hayhurst, Austin, Connolly, Olyne, Irvine, Pilbrow, Hedley, Hay, Gaffney, Gray, Twomey, Pitt, Davis, Talbot and Dr Hayes. • Mr W. Wills said he had no objection to any of the names except that of Mr Twomey’s. What could Mr Twomey know about butter and cheese making. Mr Tworaey’s name should be struck out. Dr Hayes wished to kppw hpw many shares Mr was going to take. He appeared to take great interest in the proceedings and he would like to know the extent to which he would support it. He had no desire to have his own name on the Committee. He would like his name withdrawn, and he thought Mr Twomey did not want his name on itueithcr. He, howeyer,

could not see what object Mr \\ ills had in getting Mr Tvvomey’s name off the Committee. : '

After a little further discussion the Chairman put: the motion -f-‘‘ That -the above-named gentlemen ,be. appointed a Committee and it was carried. ” ■/, The meeting then terminated.