The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1883. THE DAIRY FACTORY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1161, 16 October 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1883. THE DAIRY FACTORY.

The Directors of the Temuka Dairy Factory have resolved to give 4d per gallon for milk, borne people are not satisfied with this, but we think they oaght to be. The Directors have done far better than we expected under the circumstances. A tew days before they came to this conclusion, a meeting was held in Ashburton to consider what prise should be given for milk during the ensuing season. It was a general meeting of shareholders, and the attendance was large. According to the report in the Ashburton Mail, a memorandum from Messrs Bowron Bros, was read, to the effect thf<t 1500 tons of cheese had arrived in London from America, and that in consequence of this overstocking of the market, the price had come down to 50s to 54s per cwt. On the strength of this, the meeting proceeded to discuss the price which the Comnany could give for niilk. It was held that 4d per gallon would result in a loss, and the first motion proposed was as follows : " That the Directors be authorised to offer the producers B\ per gallon for milk of lOlbs for the ensuing year, with the understanding that after 5 per cent be paid to the shareholders as interest any balance remaining be divided pro rata among the producers up to 4d, any remaining to go to a reserve fund." As an amendment to this it was proposed—- " That the producers be paid for 11 lbs of milk," and it was carried by a majority of 2 to 1. We have purposely kept this information back for two reasons—first, because we did not want to discourage the Directors at the very moment they were deliberating upon what they would do, and secondly, because we believed there was not so much in .vhat transpired in Ashburton as appeared on the surface. It is nothing extraordinary to see the London market rise and fall. It merely means that at that very moment the supply of cheese was greater than the demand. Theie is one thing in favor of the colonies. The American winter is our summer, and our cheese will be going into the London market exactly at the time the supply from America will be falling off. Under these circumstances we see nothing to be alarmed at in finding the price of cheese falling at the very time an extraordinary quantity of it came in irom America, It is probable it has since gone up. Ashburton people also look with doubt on the proceedings. In fact, some of the people go so far as to say that a certain clique are working to get the factory altogether into their own hands. These considerations (that is, thpt we did not like to throw a damper on the nfftur just in the very moment j il was starting, ami that tvn believed there was nut much in the alarm raised)

made us suppre»s all information on the bubject, and it was with much pain we noticed that the Timaru Herald seemed to gloat over the bad prospects that were in store tor dairy tactones. Now, however, the Directors have decided to give a splendid price for milk, and it is not necessary to withhold the information longer. There is nothing of the clique amongst the present directory ; they are almost all producers, and equally as anxious to get the highest price for milk as any outsider could be. In the face of the alarm raised in Ashburton, and trumpeted throughout South Canterbury by the Timaru Herald, we think the Directors deserve great praise for the action they have taken. A company that had a year's experience had said " Wo can't give 4d per gallon for milk," and in the face of that our local Directors resolved upon giving it. We sincerely trust, therefore, that the milk-producers will do everything in their power to make the factory a success. All that is necessary is a good supply of milk, and if that is obtained its success is insured. Mr J. Grigg, of Longbeach, said at the meeting in Ashburton that the factory had increased the value of land within the radius which supplied it with milk by fiom £1 10s to £2 per acre. We ask owners of land in the vicinity of the Temuka factory, is it not worth their while to support an industry which will increase the value of their properties in that manner? Besides, 4d per gallon is a very good price for milk ; there is no other way in which they could make so much out of their land, and if the farmers do not supply the milk, they will mak6 the greatest mistake they ever did in thsir lives. The Press says : Active operations at the Cheese Factory at Flemington are now being carried on as usual, and notwithstanding the reduction ia the price paid to the farmers for the milk, the supply now coming to hand is very satisfactory. The farmers in Aj-'h-burton have learned from experience that 3J?d pergallon from the dairy factory will pay them better than anything else. It ip to be hoped the people here will appreciate what the Directors have done and supply all the milk they can as soon as the factory is opened.

THE REFRIGERATING COMPANY. The Refrigerating Company has been floated successfully, and all that remains to do now is to select a site and ereet suitable buildings thereon. A Committee was appointed some time ago to select a site, but though meetings have been held since nothing has been done. The Committee cannot defiuitely make up their minds as to where it would be best to locate the works. Some of them are in favor of having the building erected near the Pareora, whilst the other section think the Wasbdyke would be far more suitable. The Pareora idea, of course, is all the ruge with the shareholders in the southern district. We are credibly informed that at their own expense they have gone to the trouble of employing an engineer to report on the unsuitableness ot the Wasbdyke as a site, and that that learned gentleman has performed his duties most satisfactorily, so far as his employers are concerned. Nobody ceuld object to the Wasbdyke on the ground that it was not the most central, and so the south thcught to ruin its prospects by showing that its water-supply was not sufficient. The Engineer settled this matter nicely. His report has not been published, but the current rumor is that he asserts that 250,000 gallons of water would be required, daily, and that it would be impossible to obtain that quantity at the Washdyke. We do not know who the Engineer is, but we do not hesitate to say that if, as reported, he has stated th»t 250,000 gallons of water would be required daily, he is one or two noughts out in his reckoning. But of course he was calculating under instructions, and as noughts are sometimes very useless figures, there was nothing very wrong in slipping one or two of them in at the tail end, to suit his employers. However, the Company expect to kill only 250 sheep per day, an<j it stands to reason that 1000 gallons of would not be necessary for each sheep. We admire the enterprise of the southern shareholders who paid this gentleman out of their own pockets, but it strikes us that he gave them a few noughts too many—in fact, he did too much for them, and ' it won't wash' great as the quantity of water is. But even if that quantity of water were required we see no reason why it could not be got at the Washdyke. It is a positive fact that at no greater depth than six or seven feet an inexhaustible supply can be got by pumping it. There cannot be the slightest doubt about this, and all that is necessary is to sink pipes six or seven feet in the ground, and all the water that is required can be got. The question of water being decided the thing the Company ought to study next is the convenience of the grettest number of the shareholders. The suitability of the Washdyke stands unrivalled in that respect. It wouLl be simply absurd for the people of this district to cart their sheep tip and do wi to Pareora. It would be very nearly as cheap for

them to send them to Christchurch. On the other hand the southern people would find the Washdyke central enough. The shipping port is near at hand, and as there is railway communication it would not make much difference to them to hare the works that distance at the wrong side of the Harbor. In fact, it appears to us that their convenience would be better suited at tbe Washdyke than at the Pareora because there they would have no cartage to pay. Under these circumstances we have no hesitation iu saying, that unless the Washdyko is selected the proper thing will not be done, and it is very doubtful whether the residents in the Peel Forest and ftangitata district will ever patronise the Company. We hope therefore that all the shareholders from this district will muster strong at the next meeting, and vote ' shoulder to shoulder' for the Washdyke. There can be no doubt but that the southern men who went to the expense of paying an Engineer to condemn the Washdyke will bring up all the force they can when the question comes to be finally settled and that they willleive no stone unturned to achieve their purpose. The shareholders in this district wo"ld do well to remember this, and to work unanimously together iu keeping the site at the Washdyke.