The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1884. A DAIRY FACTORY FOR MASTERTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1616, 22 February 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1884. A DAIRY FACTORY FOR MASTERTON.

About a year ago we suggested the advisability of establishing a Dairy Factory in Masterton, and instigated some inquiries with the view to ascertain the amount of support which an enterprise of this character would receive from farmers and the business members o! the community. We ascertained that farmers were favorable to such a project, and were quite prepared to pledge themselves to support it by contributing milk, Some of the leading business men of the town, however, questioned whether it would not be advisable to wait to see the result of the other factories which had been launched, also whether a high price for butter might not tempt farmers to withdraw the promised supplies of milk. Last year there was a feeling that dairy produce was likely to be dear, and if so, why have a dairy factory? However, prices are as low, or lower than ever, and we regret that steps were not taken twelve months ago to establish a factory, because we feel certain that both farmers and storekeepers would then have been in a better position than they now are, We believe that a factory could be opened in Masterton under more favorable conditions than those which exist in othe'rtownships. It appears to us that the o|d school building, with a little adaptation, would make convenient premises, easily accessible to all the surrounding country districts. They would be a centre to which milk could bo readily brought from the Te Ore Ore, tho Pairau, the Manaia, the Upper Plain, and Opaki districts. The factories established at Taratahi and Greytown could not within a similar .radius collect half the supplies which could bo brought .in to a Masterton centre, We again commend a proposal to establish a factory in Wairavapa North to the consideration of settlers, Perhaps the County Settlers' Association, if there be any vitality left in it, will turn the question over. The South County has two factories—the North has not ono; and yet we ven ture to assert that thero is dairy farming land within two miles of the centre of Masterton that will carry immediately a greater number of cows than the land within three or four miles of either of the factories in Wairarapa South.