TAIERI AND PENINSULA COMPANY.

Evening Star, Issue 12722, 27 January 1906, Page 2

TAIERI AND PENINSULA COMPANY.

[Fbom Oub Own Correspondent.

OAMARU, January 27. The function on Thursday in connection ■with the opening of the Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply Company’s Oamaru factory was altogether of a most enjoyable character, although the toast list was over long, some of the speeches drawn out beyond reasonable limits, and the conclusion not reached until close upon five o’clock. All present concurred in commending the enterprise of the directors in making the factory so complete, and there was equal unanimity upon the value of tho factory to the town and district, and the duty imposed farmers to accord it a hearty support, Of course, the origin, history, and remarkable progress of the company entered largely into many of the speeches. Very full information upon those points was afforded by Mr A. Macfarlane i f cl)airman of directors) and Mr Bolt (secretary), and it was plain that the company had not had a pleasant road to travel all the way to its present exalted place among the successful enterprises of the colony. Some figures - quoted by Mr Bolt so well display the remarkable progress of the company that th \ are worth reproducing. They show the turnover of the company at quinquennia! periods, and are as followlßßs, £usai; 1890, £9,500; 1835, £29,000; 1900, aj 125,000; 1905, £260,000. Another notethy point made by the secretary was C at, notwithstanding the enormous turner er last year, the Dank overdraft never exceeded £25. A diversion from the routine of toasts was provided by the presentation of an illuminated address to Mr "W. Nicolson from a large number of the milk suppliers in the district. The presentation was made by Mr A. Avery, and was an acknowledgment of the services rendered to the milk suppliers of North Otago in his capacity of a director of the comKy. Mr Nicolson, in replying, said he not acted from purely unselfish motives, for he himself was one of the largest milk suppliers, and in doing what he had done he was in reality gnarding his own interests. One of the most interesting speeches of the function was certainly that made in responding to the toast of “The Visitors” by Mr Turner, representative of Messrs Weller and Riley, Limited, produce merchants, of London. He said that he had travelled through many countries where butter was made, and he had no hesitation in Baying that the factory they were then in was the finest he had ever seen in his life. Though he was still a young man, he had been for seventeen years engaged in the distribution of butter trade, and he had Been dairies in Ireland, Denmark, Russia, Siberia, Finland, and Australia, and so could claim ,to speak with some authority. In Siberia the cost of the factories ranged from £.50 to £SOO, and in Ireland it was from £BOO to £3,000; and nowhere, barring Denmark, had he known of a factory being provided at a cost of £12,500, tho amount expended upon that branch factor? of the Taderi and Peninsula Company, to say nothing of the much greater sum expended upon the company’s greater central factory in Dunddin. The organisation in the production of butter in New Zealand was not equalled in any part of the world, and its system of central factories, securing economy in cost of production and ensuring large quantities of butter of equal quality, was one which ‘old in the success which had attended New Zealand butter in the Home markets. Siberia was a big country, with magnificent pasture lands and marvellous possibilities, but 75 per cent, of its butter eould not interfere or come into competition with the New Zealand butter, because it was composed of small lots, some of the casks of lewt being made up of two or three days’ makes, while many small lets were lumped together to make one line, with the result that uniformity of quality could not be relied upon. Twentyfive per cent, of the Siberian butter, which was made upon the creamery system, might enter into competition. If tho New Zealanders had confidence in their own ability they could get as good a price for their butter as Denmark, and might even obtain a better price, for the Danish winter butter was made from cream obtained from cows that were fodder-fed, and suffered in consequence in flavor; while New Zealand butter arrived Home all the year round with the sweet scent of tho meadows upon it, and it was of better quality and textnre. Th© butter-makers of New Zealand had a chance of making tho British people, pay as much for their butter as_ for Danish, but to do this they wanted scientific distribution. The Taieri and Peninsula Company had been the first in this colony to get hold of a distributing company, but that company had only one office in one town, and something more was wanted. If they could get another with branch warehouses in many centres dealing direct with the retail dealers, they would have a perfect system of distribution. H > honestly believed that the New Zealand butter was superior to that of Denmark when it landed upon the London market in winter. He congratulated the people of New Zealand upon the possession of snch a magnificent country, with its rich pasture lands its scenery of unrivalled _ grandeur. This country” was a great gift from God. and the people were developing their great inheritance in a most remarkable manner, as was shown by the value of the exports ner head of population. which was unequalled in any part of the world. The Taieri and -Peninsula Company were so exoeptionafiy well organised and worked that they were hound to be of great benefit not onlv to this colony, hut to the p°ople of the Old Country, who knew how to appreciate a perfect article of food.