TARANAKI'S GREAT DAIRY FACTORY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1402, 30 March 1912, Page 14

TARANAKI'S GREAT DAIRY FACTORY.

V&'/\ AKAUMKONUI, i \: : :;,". THE. WORLD..,, .\ In tho Kaupokonui Co-operative Dairj; Factory Company, Limited, Taranaki possesses both tho largest checso producing concern and the largest daiTy factory under one roof in the world. Lying in tho midst of a most fertile country on the tanks of the Kaupokonui Pviver whero land has reached a truly golden,value, tho rise and success of < tho Kaupokonui company has been rightly described as one of the features of co-operative dairy -~.,;.: -■?-»',■•■"?£s:' ' ;.;'"Th'6;'iii'.^ pony'dates' back' only " fifteen years. Started in 1897 with a modest capital of X 2030 in JCI shares, of which 1737 were issued its progress has been remarkable. In 1897-98 the turnover of., the comwnT -was .5G926,' which increased-to .£17,072 in tho following year, and .£28,793 in the 1899-1900 season. By 1905-190G tho turnover had gone up to .£72,930, and the following year it had reached „E114,7G3. In 1909-1910 the figures were a record in the history of the company, namely, .£121,834 Uls.'lOd. When the company commenced operations in 1597 it paid 7-88 d. per pound on the season's output, which sum was nearly a penny a pound more than the suppliers received the year before from the proprietary concern which then controlled the district. Last season the com,pany, paid something-like 13d. per pound .!oi.*vbi:,tfcr-fatjOj)''(he.' >, p'utput, winch was ■about'twenty tiiu'es larger than it was fifteen years ago. .-These figures -gi ve .some idea of the 'reason why the price of dairy'lurid'in the Kaupokonui district has gone up from £16 to M 0 per acre in the same period. In 1902 tho company started its general store business in one of the rooms of the factory, but now grown to a very big concern indeed, with a turnover of over .A' 25,000 per annum. Tho company is one of a group of co-operative concerns which established the Wovt Coast Refrigerating Company at IV.toa, whereby- the cost of handling and freezing cheese and butter has be-?u greatly reduced, while n considerable Miring has been effected on railage. In 1902 a further combination I of the co-operative companies established the Lgniont Co-operative Box Company, with a factory at E'thuni, and' a wel'lfittod sawmill on the Jluin Trunk line, near Taihape. In the course of its ramifications the company found it necessary by converting itself into a sort of financial institution for the purchase of iarms on behalf of suppliers in places where there was opposition in the shapo of n proprietary Inetory. This was notably the case, nt Kapuui, whero the company , ; Jiuiit:u-.a>-factoiy. in. M 997, which resulted in a strenuous fight between co-operation and private enterprise. Co-operation won, and the erection of the Kapunui faptory.completed (he group of eight lactor jos, which .the company is how operating .'and from which it turns' out something- like 2300 tons of cheese. In 19C0 the cheese output was 1200, .so that it willbe seen that it has almost doubled itself-.-.in five years. The bonuses which the company pays out to suppliers on the previous season's supply runs into a verv largo sum, usually oyer .£12,000, being nt lid. per lb. of butter fat, and the bigger suppliers draw from this fund alone sums which range from .£IOOO downwards. Somo idea of the magnitude of the Kaupokonui Company may be gauged by tho fact that in fifteen years it has paid for mill; alone over .to suppliers, e,ll within eight square miles of country. In the last few years the figures may have averaged something larger. A recent item which will go to swell these returns is butter .manulaclured from tho whey over-run, which' last year brought the company a handy cheque of .C2OOO. Tho company's new concrete building is for the manufacture of checso nnrt butler. The checsc-maliing room is' "0 feet by , r io feet. ■ It. will hold twelve 850gallon milk vats and twclvo cheese presses. 'flip separator, room for the butter-making has R-ven 100-gallon cream vats, and three combined churns anil butter workers. Tho eurins; mini for the i-het-s has: n 17-inch concrete wall an S-ineli insulation. T'hi* has n capacity for storing 5000 M-pound c-heesi-. The Kaupokonui. Compahv is an exceedingly well managed institution, and its general jucciss u a tribute to the business capabilities of .Taranaki '•fanners: ■ • ■ •• -' .. The npponded table shows the growth of the company'* business, its turnover, and issue of capital ;— Turnover. Shares Year. X' s. d. issued. 1897-98 0,920 7 11 1,737 1898-99 '. 17,072 0 10 0.923 1899-00 28,793 15 3 :i,GGS 1900-111 21,255 S 3 4,1". 7 1901-02 35,170 15 9 5.00(1 1902-03 51,107 16 5 0,303 1903-01 5(1.2-13 5 II) «.G2S HIJI-05 -19.272 13 2. 0.099 l!'05-0(i : 72.93G 13 7 7,17(1 190G-07 111,703: IS 10 ' 13.909 1907-08 113.202 510 11,993 IW&.IM 10< ,S:>S 17 I 17,059 1909-10 121,831 10 10 17,805 fine American picturo film-making firm linn 7001) i-nshimes of all countries in ■took, m Against 171 in 1000.