Farming Notes.

Bruce Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 67, 27 August 1917, Page 5

Farming Notes.

COOL STORAGE AT BLUIT. DAIRYMEN CONTRIBUTE £4OOO TO HARBOUR BOARD. ( { Southland News.') The meeting of dairy factory representatives last week, when the question of additional cool storage was considered, was not nearly as representative as - such an important matter denmanded. Mr Poster, chairman of the South Island Dairy Association, who presided, placed the proposals very fairly before the meeting, and was supported by another director, Mr Thos. Buckingham, who also chances to be a member of the Bluff Harbour Board. The gist of his motion was that the Bluff Harbour Board be reqiested to build additional accommodation for 23,000 crates at a cost of £7OOO odd, and the dairy companies

contribute about £4OOO of this money by a surcharge of 14s per ton (Is per crate), spread over one or two seasons. The dairymen of Southland are thus going to contribute £4OOO to the Harbour Board, one of the wealthiest public bodies in Southland, and at the same time have no Bay in the management or ownership of the store. It was argued that when shipping again became nor- . mal there might be no use for the additional accommoiation, but Southland's port is growing in importance and storage accommodation at a growing port is always a valuable asset. Orchards now in the making will, in a very few years, be exporting fruit, and the store would be useful fo rthat purpose, or industrial troubles muy necessitate delays in shipping, as they have done in the past,'" and such a store as is proposed will always be found useful. The majority at the meeting were .decidedly against making the donation to the Bluff Harbour Board, but, fearing that there was no other way of obtaining the storage accommodation necessary if the shipping is to be as irregular as last season, and not wishing to go to the trouble of forming a company, they accepted the proposal. A. cool store could have been built anywhere along the railway, and necessitated no more handling than is required in the present store, and had the dairymen taken up this idea, as put to them at the meeting, they would only have had to contribute a little more and had a cool store whien would have been their own, and under their own control. By the aetion tluey have taken they are tying themselves to the

Bluff Harbour Board for all time, as well as making them a gift of £4OOO odd.