Heretaunga Dairy Cream Collection

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 162, 25 June 1935, Page 8

Heretaunga Dairy Cream Collection

(To the Editor.) Sir,—As a shareholder and supplier of the above factory I should like to point out what 1 consider the improper methods adopted by those in charge of these affairs. We will take the Sherenden, Crownthorpe, Otamauri and surrounding districts an an example. Up till about two years ago our cream was collected by two of the carriers operating in these districts and collected twice weekly, and delivered to the factory in time to be tested and emptied into the vats before the factory closed for the day. Well, those in control decided to have a change and called for tenders for the collection of cream, and instead of making it a district affair worded it as a main road collection and omitted Whana Whana, Waiwhare ‘and Flag-range roads out from the contract. We unfortunates who live on these roads had to cart our cream out to the main road, a distance of an average of four and a-half miles, or pay the contractor an extra halfpenny over and above the three-farthings which was the prioe of the tender submitted by him, although there was a tender of one halfpenny submitted by one of the already mentioned carriers.

Another point which was very unfair to the unsuccessful tenderers was that clause 40 (to the effect that in the event of the cream not being delivered to the factory before four o’clock the contractor was to lose half the collection fees due for that day) as soon as the present contractor started, was struck out, and under the present system cream is delivered to the factory any old time between eight o’clock and midnight and allowed to stand on a steam-heated platform till the opening for work next morning. Now, Sir, you are well aware of the blasts, lectures, and pamphlets so generously distributed by the factory as to what suppliers should do to keep their cream up to the grade so called “finest.” They themselves break their own law, and it is against their own as well as the suppliers’ interest for the whole grade of butter turned out by the factory. I may state in conclusion that certain suppliers on one of the above-mentioned roads flatly refused to pay the extra halfpenny, and now they nave the privilege of being classed main-roaders and have their cream collected at the contract price of threefarthings per pound of butterfat.— Yours, etc., ARTHUR H. OLIVER. June 24, 1935.

[On the above letter being referred to him, Mr D. G. Begley, chairman of the Heretaunga Dairy Company, said that it was not his policy to take part in Press correspondence concerning the domestic affairs of the company. Suppliers were able, he said, to placo complaints before members of the management, and the annual meeting provided opportunity for any grievance to be ventilated. In reply to a question Mr Begley said that the board had given very careful consideration to eream-collection in sparsely settled outlying areas, and it was found to be advantageous to work in wherever possible with a service already established on these particular roads, as only by this means could the company hope to keep the cost of collection within reasonable economic limits.— Ed. H.B.T.]