The Temuka Leader TUESDAY. MAY 15, 1883. BUTTER AND CHEESE FACTORIES

Temuka Leader, Issue 1105, 15 May 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY. MAY 15, 1883. BUTTER AND CHEESE FACTORIES

We published some interesting information respecting the Ashburton Butter and Cheese Factory » few days ago. An interview with Mr Poyntz now enables us to give further particulars concerning that institution. The factory was opened on the 2nd of November last, and it will practically close on the first of June next, Thus it will then have completed a season of seven months, with the result that it will have manufactured over 50 tons of cheese, or sufficient to entitle it to the Government bonus, The quality of the cheese is excellent, and if it had been made in suitable sizes for the colonial market it is said that it would sell in Melbourne at 15d per lb, but a mistake has been made, and this will resu't i" 1 ssrnin? its value The usual weight of cheeses for the London market is from 56lbs to 1121bs, and these are the sizes of the Ashburton cheeses, as the intention was to forward them to the English market. Some cheese buyers from Australia recently visited the factory, and they said that if the sizes had been fit for the colonial markets, that is from 121 b to 35lbs, there would be no difficulty in getting 15d per lb for it in Melbourne, But even as it is, the (Sectrefary is in possession of information which leaves very little doubt on his mind that it can be placed in Sydney at 9-1 per lb, and probably more, because the quality is pronounced to be exceedingly good. This will leave an immense profit. Kven if the cheese has to be sold at 6£d per lb the Secretary estimates that there will be a net profit of £IOOO. Part of this profit comes from 50 pigs which the company has reared on the whey. The pigs were bought for 11s 3d each. Nothing whatsover was given to them but whey, and they sold at 445, or a profit of £1 13s 9d each. This is most satisfactory, and shows what a profitable industry the Temuka district has had the good fortune to have established, But the farmer’s side of the question is apparently better still. Mr Poynfa showed us his monthly statements of the amounts he paid for milk, and the information we gathered from them ought to be sufficient to induce farmers to adopt the factory system enthusiastically. The cheques paid monthly varied from *2-) to £4O, the highest paid being £46 14s 4d for a month’s supply. A farmer who has only 50 acres of land has all the summer been receiving regularly every month a cheque for sums varying between £2O and £3O for milk supplied by him at 4d per gallon to the factory. Farmers who have had to hawk their butter from store to store to aell it, and had to take -in return dear goods for it, will realise how extremely handy it is to get a cheque for £3O or £4O every month. The farmers around the Ashburton factory are becoming very independent already. Ihey hare not now to run up long scores with the storekeeeper: they have the ready money every month to pay for anything they want, and a longstanding account does not bind them to purchase their goods at any certain

place. They have the money and they can bay in the cheapest market. Wo have frequently pointed out to the faimers in the Geraldine and Waitohi Plat districts the advisability of starting factories in their own districts but they have not yet taken our advice. The information which we here lay before them ought to induce them to start at once, and we trust they will do ao.