The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1883. DAIRY FACTORY FOR GERALDINE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1116, 9 June 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1883. DAIRY FACTORY FOR GERALDINE.

It is with much pleasure we learn that our oft-repeated suggestion witli regard to the establishment of a Butter and Cheese Factory in the Geraldine district is about to be adopted. A public meeting will be hold in the Oddfellows’ Hall next Tuesday evening for the purpose of considering the matter, and we have very little doubt but that it will be taken up enthusiastically. We have so frequently referred to the subject already, mid urged it with such persistency on the attention of our readers, that we fet, 1 ! we can say n itliing new regarding it now. Htill, as the Geraldine people are launching in'o the project at present, we may be pardoned if we repeat what wo have already published, s.) as to {.mint out to them the importance of the industry they have resolved upon starling. In a recent issue wo published some facts gatheicd from the {Secretary to

the Ashburton Dairy Factory. The result of the first year’s operations in that factory ought certainly to be sufficient to induce any community of farmers to take it up, It was shown that some farmers were receiving from the sale of their milk between £4O and £SO per month, and that one small farmer, with only 50 acres of land, had been receiving cheques varying from £2O to £3O per month all through the summer, This, and the fact that the Company estimated that the year’s work would yield a clear profit of £IOOO. ought to be sufficient argument in favor of the industry. On the one hand assurance is given by these facts that to take shares in the company is a profitable way of investing money, while the fact that £3O a month can be made from 50 acres of land must leave no doubt on any one’s mind that it is an institution that will increase the income of the farmer considerably. In fact it is the farming classes who will be benefited most by it, and therefore they ought to take it up heartily, Let them ask themselves how much better it would be for them to get their £2O, £3O, or £4O per month from the factory than to have to hawk their batter from shopkeeper to shopkeeper, and receive only a very dear and inferior quality of goods in exchange for it. It the dairy factory starts it will make them quite independent ot the shopkeepers, because they will have ready money at the end of every month, and, as they need no longer resort to barter, they can go to the cheapest market and buy the best class of goods for less money than they had to pay for them hitherto. It is evident therefore that the advantage is altogether on the side of the farmer and we trust that he will realise that fact, and go in heartily for the industry. Very probably tne same difficulty that was experienced in Temuka regarding the price of milk will arise in Geraldine. In Temuka the thing was cried down because people would not believe that it would pay a farmer to milk cows at 3d per gallon. After examining the matter closely at the time we came to the conclusion that more than 3d per gallon could be given for milk, and we believe that only for the persistence with which we urged that fact upon our readers the industry would not have started. Our advice to the people of Geraldine is not to raise this question at all. If they want to know, they cannot make any other use of their land that will pay them so well as milking cows at 3d per gallom But the price will certainly be more than that. The Edendale factory has been paying 5d per gallon and the Ashburton one 4d per gallon, and at that price the Secretary of the Ashburton factory asserts that the Company made a net profit of £IOOO. We should, therefore, advise the farmers of Geraldine not to throw any difficulty in the way of the industry in this regard. Let them remember that wherever factories of this kind have been started, they have, without exception, proved a great success. That one fact —the fact that they have never been known to fail—is worth all other arguments that can be brought for or against them, and ought to silence forever anyone from saying they will not pay. Next Tuesday evening a public meeting will be held in Geraldine to consider the matter, and we trust that it will be unanimous with regard to starting the industry at once,