DAISY FACTORIES.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7169, 3 October 1888, Page 5

DAISY FACTORIES.

AN INTERVIEW WITH MR MEADOWS.

THE CENTRAL FACTORY QUESTION.

HIS OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH ISLAND.

Mr E. Meadows, the representative of the well known London firm of provision merchants, Messrs H. Trengouse and Co., who is on a tour through New Zealand, arrived in Christchureh yesterday from the North. A representative of the P&Esa had an interview with him on the subject of dairy factories, and his opinions on this important subject will be found below. The object of Mr Meadows' visit is to see whether arrangements can be made by the firm which he represents for the purchase of dairy produce for s hip , ent to England, and as will be seen he states that an almost unlimited market can be obtained in England should the quality come up to the required standard. He has just completed a tour of the North Island, during which he inspected the various factories' there, and has now come to the South on a similar mission. The opinions expressed by Mr Meadows are well worthy attention as being those of an observant expert.

The first question dealt with by Mr Meadows in the interview was the vexed oue of whether one factory established in a centre with creameries in the various districts, or a series of independent factories, was the best. "My opinion/ , 3aid Mr Meadows, "is that the best system to establish is that which prevails in Canada. There they first of all establish a factory built by a Bank or men of means. Of course, the understanding is that the farmers, say for a radius of ten or twelve miles round, will send in their milk to the factory. The next step is to engage a competent man—competent, that is, as regards cheese and butter making—to manage the factory. They do not pay him any salary, but allow him two cents per lb on all he produces, he finding all the labor. All the capitalist, or company, do in regard to the factory is to supply the buildings and machinery. If the manager is successful he makes a very good income. Under this system not only is that close personal supervision ensured .which is so essential to the success of the factory system, but an incentive is given to the man in charge to turn out the best results. As the milk comes in it is weighed, and the various amounts placed to the credit of the farmers sending it in. Then when there is suiiicient butter and cheese made for sale it is placed on the market and the relative percentage of profit credited to the individual farmers, according to the amount of milk sent in. You will perhaps ask who is to do the business for the factory, that is, how are the sales managed. Well, a Committee of two or three farmers is elected by those interested, who manage this part of the business. Their work ie honorary, and thus you will see that the factory is worked on a joint account. It is a partnership, with all its ■ advantages and none of its disadvantages. That is the only factory system I know of which is likely to stand and prosper. It may be that under it, should the factory prove successful, the farmers will say that the man to whom the management is entrusted gets too much. Well, the result is that they form a factory of their own, and that tends to spread the system. My "opinion on the question proposed is, that one central factory on the Canadian system would be the best for here."

The next question dealt with was as to the best method of shipping butter.

" I do not know, ,, said Mr Meadows, " that I can add anything on this subject to what I have already said in my interview with the Minister for Lands. In shipping butter I do not think you can improve on the ordinary cask of 70lb to lOUlb. In shipping it to a distance, the larger the bulk or body of the butter the better it keeps. I have known instances where largo kegs of butter have been shipped fro ■ America to England and have fetched good prices, while smaller ones were mostly all rank on the outside. Have the kegs made of good sound material, something that will not affect the buttsr, but never expect to see them back again. After the butter is landed in London it is eight miles from there to the warehouses, and it is there sold to men who take it 150 miles into the country, and sometimes it may go 600 miles to Glasgow. Hence the impossibility of collecting empties. The chamber on the voyage home should be kept at a temperature of 40deg; a degree or two, however, either way will not make much difference, but 40deg is the point to aim at. The rule as to temperature cannot be too strictly adhered to. '

It ha 3 already been stated that Mr Meadows has gone through the North Island, and his impressions as to the dairy factory system there, and its capabilities for the production of butter and cheese, ■will be interesting. " I have visited," said Mr Meadows, " all the various dairying , localities in the North Island. Auckland, I may say, is far ahead of any other part c£ the North. Island in regard to the factory system. I saw two or three factories there, and as to the butter at some of them better could not be produced. London has never been catered for better than Auckland with prime fresh butter. New Plymouth is hard on the track, but is much behind Auckland as yet. The small farmers seemed disinclined to encourage the factory system, though decidedly in their own interest. At Fielding there is no factory at present, and the butter is not so good as in other parts. This, I think, results from the flavor caused by the country being more recently settled than at Auckland and New Plymouth. Where you get land where the bush has been recently burnt there is a potash flavor left with the grass which aSects the bntte*. Then there is the watercress and shrubs which the cattle feed on in the winter, which also affects the flavor of the butter. My opinion is that in this colony you do not care sufficiently for your cattle in the winter, and that this is one reason why you get bad butter. In the winter they feed on dandelion roots and the other things I have mentioned, and the result is a strong flavor in the .butter. At Wanganui they have fairly good butter. They have established a factory there, and have some very good cheese, and I believe they will be able there to produce the article we want for the London market. The same may be said of Longburn, near Palmerston North. There is no earthly reason, judging from what I have seen of the North Island, why it should not be the finest dairying district in the world, if they only adopt the factory system similar to that in Canada. My own opinion is that the weakest point here is that you do not get expert cheese and butter makers. It has not occurred to you here what is the right and proper way—indeed the only ■way —to get them. You have got three or four good men in the colony. At Daletield, for instance, near Carterton, the cheese is as good a≤ I expected to find, and j I am prepared to take all they can make. Now, the only way to multiply men of this kind is to adopt the Canadian system, and have an expert in charge, who can have three or four ycuug men to train. It will take two or three years to do it, but if 'he system ia carried out you will soon multiply experts. There is no need for the Government to spend money to introduce men; they will speedily multiply if the system I have referred to is carried out. You must, as in the case of the cheese and butter under the Canadian system, give an expert an incentive to carry ont the plan iii its entirety ; of course I do not know yet what are the capabilities of the South Island, but I am going down to Invercargill in order to examine into the working of the factory there." On the subject of his mission to the colony, Mr Meadows had s. few words to say in concluding the interview. " I hare

come out here," said he, "in the interests of the firm I represent, because we have seen sufficient of the cheese and butter from New Zealand at Home, which we have handled, to believe that with care and the introduction of a proper sytt* j you can produce it at a price which will be highly remunerative to you, and at the same time render it worthy of our attention. I shall only be too ready to meet the farmers in any way with a view of letting them know what we want, and when the right article is produced we shall be ready to take it at a good price with an almost unlimited demand. I shall stay in the colony during the whole of the season. I shall be in Christchurch for three or four days, and shall be happy to confer with the farmers throughout the district on a subject in which not only are they interested, but the colony as a whole."