MEREMERE DAIRY COMPANY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 August 1924, Page 10

MEREMERE DAIRY COMPANY.

TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. The twentv-ninth annual meeting of tlie Meremere Co-operative Dairy factory Company, Ltd., was held "m the Ohangai llall on Saturday, when the chairman (.Mr. J. E. O’Shea) presided over a small attendance of shareholders. Tiie chairman, m moving the adoption of the annual report and balancesheet (.already published), said .he thought that the company’s output this year had been fairly satisfactory. They had had a bad time during the two previous years, but their position had been improved this last season in a* number of ways. Although the shareholders would have liked to see a bigger pay-out, in view of other factories hav_ mg paid out a higher amount per pound of butter-fat, yet they could not get away from the fact that their pay-out was also higher than that of others. Considering the conditions under which the Meremere Company had been working their pay-out was very satisfactory indeed. The prices paid for butter-boxes and crates had remained about the same, but wages were a bit high in comparison with some other factories, owing to the decreasing supply of milk. Three years ago the milk supply was 7,755,0001 b; the following year it was 7,205,0001 b, and for the season just ended it was 6,500,0001 b, the decrease _ being due to some suppliers going over to the proprietary concerns. They had six vats in the factory and the last season only 4»- were filled. If all the vats had been filled each day the cost- of manufacturing would have been practically nil. Continuing, the chairman said that repairs and maintenance this season had amounted to £634, but included in that amount was the cost of a new pasteuriser, the old one having become useless. With regard to the rest of the items of expenditure they could not have got out of any of them, as they had run the factory as cheaply as they could. During the year the company had obtained the freehold of the land on which the factory stands, it being a native lease previously.

As they knew, the previous secretary (Mrs. Page) had resigned during the year, and out of 80 applicants for the position Mr. Salmon had been appointed. Mr. Salmon was proving himself an ideal secretary. The Dairy Control Board had been elected 'during the year, but he might say that the Meremere Company was one which had voted against it. However, he had been •speaking to a member of the Meat Control Board, and that gentleman had told him of the reductions of freight which the Meat Control Board had obtained. If the- Dairy Control Board only succeeded in obtaining a, similar reduction in that one item they would .justify their existence. A matter that had been affecting the Meremere Company as well as other conipanies was the establishment of proprietary concerns. Most of those present would have read the articles in the Star and would, have seen that a number of the contentions of the proprietary concerns had been exploded. The Star was a paper that the farmers owed a lot to —in fact, from the farmers point of view it was one of the best papers in the Dominion. They would have noticed in the Star figures supplied by Mr. Duncan, secretary of the Hawera Dairy Company, showing how the proprietary concern paying out on the cream test was not paying any more than a co-operative concern paying out on the milk test 1-fd per lb butter-fat less. A lot of waste took place in separating on the farm, and then there was a big difference between the overrun of the proprietary concern handling cream and the cooperative concern handling milk. The chairman pointed out that the company had had to battle along in the old days through mud and slush, but had managed to make bigger pay-outs than their neighbours. They bad had to contend with many difficulties, but he believed that they had now turned the corner. The l-eason why they had not been able to compete with the Normanby Company was that while Meremere’s coal bill was over £6OO, Normanby, which had an output twice the size and was able to make use of water-power, only had a coal bill of about £3OO.

Mr. O’Shea said lie wished to thank his fellow-directors for the support they had given him. He had sat on the board for twenty years and he had never had a better board of ‘triers.” They had spared neither time nor energy. With regard to the secretary (Mr Salmon) the chairman said they had thought Mrs. Page would bo hard to replace, but they would soon bt thinking that the present secretary would be hard to replace. Mr. Salmon was going to make a name for himself as a secretary, and he hoped that the companies would be able to retain the secretary’s services. 'The annual report and balance-sheet were adopted Mr. S. Turner was granted permission to address the meeting for a few minutes. Mr. Turner, in speaking on the question of proprietary v. co-opera-tive concerns, said the change over was due in the first place to the fact that the men on the land to-day were not the men that' were on the land twenty years ago. Secondly, the consensus of opinion to-day wa s that the difference between the slumming of milk hv an up-to-date plant and the skimming on the farm 1$ per cent, of cream was lost in the operation which took place on the farm. In the case of the Meremere Company that loss would he equal to -4A tons of cheese, which the suppliers would he losing. Further, the most up-to-date factory lost ,0b of butter-) at in the process of skimming, hut the man on the farm by hi s methods lost very much more. It must also he remembered that in reading tests a factory manager always read down to the nearest half-point. With cream, of course, that meant a loss of ten times as much to the supplier, and a big margin in favour of the proprietary concern. By reason of the loss oil the faim and the difference in test an overrun could he secured by a private concern of about 33 per cent.’, while the ordinary co-operative concern secured an ove"Hin of about 16 per cent. Speaking on the question of butter v. cheese Mr. Turner pointed out that no director or anvone else could foresee t.ho future condition of the market. There were dual plants all over the world, which could switch over in the middle of the season if they chose, and create a surplus in any one commodity. Nobody in England could judge the market for a fortnight, let alone a season, (.'ont’muirr. Mr. Turner gave it as his opin’on that the New Zealand cooperative system was the host in the world. Nevertheless, if it was going to remain pure they must tackle the question of one co-operative factory taking suppliers from’ another. This unsettled state in their midst was all to the advantage of the proprietary eoncern. hut it was a matter which could be tackled by a federation of fa-tories. Tn conclusion, Mr. Turner said it was only a matte’ 1 of educating farmers for them to realise that thev secured the host returns from the cooperative concern which gave them all thefe was in the business.

GENERAL. t Messrs J. Lander, W. Savage and G. W. Harding were elected to fill the three vacancies on the directorate. Mr. H. A. Lennon, in conjunction with Mr. W. J. Tristram, was appointed auditor for the ensuing year. The chairman, Mr. J. E. O’Shea, was voted an honorarium of £6O for his services during the past year, it being pointed out that when Mr O’Shea reckoned up his expenses he would not be making anything out of the grant. Directors’ fees were fixed %it the same as last year. Votes of thanks were accorded the manager and staff and the chairman and secretary. A vote of thanks was also accorded to the press, the chairman, in moving in this direction, pointing out the value to the farming community of the articles published. Mr. P. Sheahan. in seconding, made special mention of the Star, he stating that tliqv regarded the Star as their local paper. If they followed carefully the articles appearing in the Star they would learn what they needed in connection with the dairying industry. For years and vear<? there bad not been an article published in the Star that had not been inserted for the nurpose of benefiting the district.