Our Industries. No. XIV.—S. KIRKPATRICK & CO., LTD.

Progress, Volume II, Issue 6, 1 April 1907, Page 218

Our Industries. No. XIV.— S. KIRKPATRICK & CO., LTD.

There is probably no industry in Nelson of greater importance to the district and the colony than Messrs. Kirkpatrick and Cos. Fruit Preserving Works. Viewed as a means of employment for a large number of persons in a variety of occupations, or as disposing of the produce of the orchards and gardens of the district, or of furnishing the colony

with delicious and health-giving food products, the industry is one that commands attention on much wider grounds than as a commercial speculation. We hope to show that the success of this business will be an object lesson of colonial importance, as answering to some extent at least, the question : " What shall we do with our boys ?" and

showing also what we may do with some of our lands. But, to begin at the beginning, we may state that Mr. Kirkpatrick commenced operations as a fruit preserver more than a quarter of a century ago, in premises which had been occupied by the first New Zealand Woollen Cloth Manufacturing Company, situated in Bridge street, Nelson. It was very soon found that new premises were absolutely necessary to cope with the rapidly increasing business, and accordingly the present extensive factory was erected, the largest block of buildings devoted to this business in the Australasian colonies. Roomy as the premises are, they are by no means too large for the business in the height of the fruit season. On the day of our representative's visit, the receiving room was

filled up with fruit, which was being taken in from the growers' carts, examined, weighed, and passed in to the sorting room at the rate of 25 to 30 tons per day. " Neat handed Phyllis and her companions were busy sorting the fruit in the next room, pulling out stalks, stray leaves, and occasionally a defective fruit. But very little trouble from the latter source is experienced, as growers know that only productions of the best quality will be accepted by the firm. The fruit is sorted into two classes, one lot to be canned whole in syrup, and the other to be boiled down into jam. Only one kind of sugar is used throughout, the Colonial Sugar Go's. No 1 ; and thus the best sugar, combined with the best fruit, not more than 24 hours from the trees, ought to give and does give, a product that is hard to equal, and impossible to beat. Special mention should

be made of the fruit that is canned and boiled whole. Fruit of even quality and size is selected ; this is put into the tins or glass ja r s, which are then filled with a clear syrup, heated by steam, and then hermetically sealed. No fruit is put up in water alone. It often happens in the height of the season that supplies arrive too quickly to be immedia telly made into jam. The process of " pulping "is then resorted to. The fruit is simply plain boiled, without any chemical preservative, and sealed up in large tins until the rush of the season is over, when it is turned into jam in the usual way. Passing into the " kitchen," the visitor sees six large copper pans, in which the fruit intended for jam is boiled by steam. These are capable of making 10 tons of jam per day, enough to fill 10,000 glass jars.

The tinsmiths' room, now almost deserted during the fruit season, employed 19 hands last winter, who were able, with their up-to date machinery, to construct a large quantity of tins, of various sizes, to hold the year's output of tinned fruits and jam. When we consider that one soldering machine is capable of soldering 11,000 tins per day, we are impressed with the idea that if perfection in this line has not been quite reached, the firm has got within measurable distance of it. We must not forget to mention that tins are washed in boiling soda water, to take away any stray acid that may have adhered to them in the process of soldering, and then they are thoroughly rinsed in clean water. Bottles are washed in an equally careful manner. / Japanning, sealing, labelling, and packing need not be described in detail ; it is suffic-

ient to say that every item in the manipulation of the various products dealt with displays evidence of the same forethought, care cleanliness, and t r ansparent honesty that characterise the whole establishment Hitherto we have spoken only of fruits ; but Messrs. Kiikpatrick and Co. preserve green peas, for which there is a large and increasing demand. They make pickles, sauces lemon cheese, mincemeat, and a host of other knick-knacks, too numerous to mention, but indispensable to the modern domestic cnxsine. Peppers, spices, and baking powder, with other goods of a similar nature, are included in the firm's operations. The estimation in which Messrs. Kirkpatrick and Cos. productions are held may be gauged by the large number of trophies that have been awarded to them at English, Colonial, and Continental Ex-

hibitions. It would be tedious to mention the whole of the various awards, consisting of gold and silver medals, and many honourable mentions. Perhaps the highest award of them all is the gold medal gained at the Exhibition of Colonial Products held last year at St. George's Hall, Liverpool. Probably all the colonial branches of the great preserving houses of England competed on that occasion, and the gaining of the Gold Medal for excellence is a feat upon which Mr. Kirkpatrick is to be congratulated, and of which Nelson may well be proud. But, after all, the supreme test of excellence is the growing demand for the goods of the well-known "X" brand. The business has steadily expanded, not only in New Zealand, but in Australia, and each year shows a larger output. What this means to Nelson district, not to

mention other places, which may and will profit by the object lesson which this industry presents, only the residents of Nelson and adjoining districts can fully realise. In past years, many a struggling family has been materially helped by finding a steady market for the tomatoes and other fruit and vegetables they were able to raise on their small holdings, to say nothing of the cheques earned by picking blackberries on waste lands, or of the employment in the factory itself, the staff numbering about 100 in the busiest time. But now that the business has assumed so much larger dimensions, the influence on the community is becoming more marked. One sees a very remarkable development of market gardening in the raising of crops, which form the staple of Kirkpatrick's business . Besides the numerous hothouses for the

supply of early tomatoes for table use, there are many field plantations of tomatoes, grown for making sauce, containing many thousands of plants, some growing 8,000, 10,000, and even 15,000 sets. Then the .visitor has simply to travel through Nelson districts to see that that sunny locality is taking its rightful place in the industrial world by producing fruit in abundance. Many new orchards have been planted of late years and are now coming into bearing. As a result of the success of fruit growing, farm lands have been subdivided, and "closer settlement " is taking place in a natural way, without the adventitious aid of special legislation. If one asks what has justified the erection of the many new and handsomehomesteads around Nelson, and in the Waimea, Motueka, and other districts, the answer in very many cases would be " Fruit." When the life of the fruit grower is compared with that of the dairyman, there is small wonder that the orchardist prefers his small acreage of well kept ground in garden and orchard \to the larger area and rougher and harder work of the dairy farmer. Young farmers will not need to go to the North Island in such numbers as they did some years ago. Now that it has been practically demonstrated by Messrs. Kirkpatrick and Co. that fruit preserving will pay, and that therefore fruit growing is an occupation that can be

depended on to furnish a good livelihood to those engaged in it on well directed lines, it follows that land values will rise ; and this effect has been seen in the readiness with which small areas of land have been taken up for fruit growing ; farm lands that were not returning too good a yield to their owners have entered upon a new era of production. Another effect of the development of the fruit industry will be the occupation of third-class lands, like the Moutere Hills, that at present are not of much agricultural value ; but in the hands of the fruit grower will yield grand crops of fruit if

properly managed and planted with the right kinds. Messrs. Kirkpatrick & Co. welcome visitors to their works, and those interested can spend a very pleasant time with Mr. Kirkpatrick while going over the works and listening to the explanation of the many interesting items on view. Nelson is to be congratulated on the success of this important business ; and Mr. Kirkpatrick is to be " highly commended" for the energy and good judgment that have conducted the enterprise so far so successfully. The great Admiral's name is combined with a colossal X as a trade mark of the firm's productions : and it is not,] too much to say that ,X's success is Nelson'sprosperity ; and we may hope that the future career of the business may ever be expressed in the name of the great hero's flagship at Trafalgar, — the Victory.