THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, Issue LVII, 19 August 1910, Page 6

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

MANUATOKI DAIRY COMPANY. THE ANNUAL MEETING. 4 Tho annual general meeting of shareholders of the Mangatoki Cooperative Dairy Company was held at the Mangatoki Hall on Thursday. Mr J. Marx (Chairman of Directors) presided, and there were about- forty-five • hareholders in attendance. ANNUAL REPORT la the annual report of the directors it was stated that after writing off £614 18s for depreciation there remained a sum of £1900 to be dealt with. A dividend of 5 per cent, on all paid-up capital was recommended, which would absorb £347, leaving £1553' as a final payment pro rata on all butter-fat supplied during the season by shareholders. With the amounts already paid the average payment for the year would be 11.6b'd per lb 'of butter-fat. The milk received totalled 24,431,021 lbs, yielding 924,9061bs of butter-fat, from which 479 tons scwt 431bs of commercial butter was manufactured. AH the butter Iras heen pasteurised, and had given the greatest satisfaction in tho Home as Avell as local markets. Messrs G. Preece, Jas. Phillips and G. Sutherland were the retiring directors, and they again offered their services. BALANCE-SHEET. The receipts showed £54,895 for butter sales and £35 for buitermilk. On the expenditure side the milk account absorbed £43,054, charges account £2296, wages £1809, consignment and sale charges £4200. Chief liabilities we're: Shares £7110, Bank of New Zealand £4240, sundry suppliers £497. Tho assets include land account £536, buildings £2576, plant £3490. dam and water race £346, requisites on hand £573, sundry debtors £2579, .loans on mortgage £1230, West Coast Refrigerating Co. £1075, Egmont Box Co. £964, re s.s. Kapuni £398, and other smaller amOUI CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS. In moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, the Chairman made congratulatory^ references to the company's position on the year's working. He said that of several .other companies' balance-sheets he had, seen Mangatoki came out on top both as to their returns and in every way. The payments to suppliers for the season totalled 11.665 d, against 11.43 dby Stratford, 11.53 d Midhirst, 11.6 M. Elfltam, lljd Normanby, and Pihama somewhere near lid. The average test (3.78) was a high one this year; then in reference to the amount of butterfat received the company had gone ahead. (Although the amount of but-ter-fat received was less than last year the finances showed an increase of £2725.) In the matter of writing off depreciation -Mangatoki had run their business on sounder lines than some or their neighbors had done. With the price the butter realised and the amount paid out', for butter-fat the company were not trying to cut anything down or make anything appear better than it really was: if there had been any erring they had preferred to do it on the safe side. He mentioned the sum of £347 3s recommended to be paid out as interest on shares at the rate of 5 per cent., which was followin" 1 the usual course. Ho congratulated the shareholders of the company on their position in that they now had the factory and plant clear, had transferred the debt from the bank to the •ompany, and the shareholders were now paying themselves between three and four hundred pounds jn interest. As regards the company's assets the land account had nfever been interfered with,' and the land that was worth the amount now shown some years ago, had been increased considerably in value. The s.s. Kapuni, in which the company was interested, had been a very satisfactory investment. Mangatoki was the first company that went in for pasteurisation in New Zealand, and the companies were now going in for it rapidly. To-day the company had reports from agents at Home who did not handle Mangatoki butter, but who spoke in the highest terms as to ~ the way in which it opened up when pliioed on the market. Mr Ballantine seconded. Tho Chairman explained that, owing k> Mr May having been removed from thff Kaponga district it had been considered advisable to appoint Mr R. Law to the directorate to represent the Kaponga creamery. . In reply to Mr Ballantine, the Chairman said that the overrun was 16.07. There was a deal of misapprehension if it was put in the annual report. Some people thought that if the overrun was 16 per cent, that was the .amount of moisture in the butter. But if butter was worked with the combinnrion churn the amount of moisture could only be ascertained by the testin"-. There was up to 82J or 83 per cont. of butter-fat, approximately 14 per cent, of moisture (it was not thought safe to go beyond that), 2i of .salt and the other part was curd and casein. The moisture was worked as near 14 per cent, all through as' possible. He referred to the early days of the company when the overrun was only 7 or 8 per cent. The position now was that it meant a matter of nearly £4000 difference in th« manufacture compared with the early period of the compnny's working. In answer to Mr Brown's query, the Chairman said he wns satisfied that ' Kaponga did not get thoir carting done ohraper than Mangatoki. On tho question of horse feed for creameries, Mr Brown was informed by Mr Anderson that two lots the manager had procured were not, up to sample — Mr Brown contended that therp was not sufficient supervision of tho horse feed,- as he never saw the manager thero once all last season. — The Chairman stated that a lot of the shareholders had no idea what amount of money was saved in different ways. Hf instanced the whole of the testing l>eing done at thp main factory and tke analysing of every churning of butter. The attention given by the manager to various matters at tho main factory moan*- hundreds of pounds to the pockets of the suppliers. 'Hie motion was adopted. GENERAL. Tho question of a non-supplier being on the directorate wns discussed. The Chairman explained that any slaareTiolder was rlipiblo according to the articles of association, which could only be nl'oved by special resolution. An extraordinary meeting of the company could be called, or the matter "could bo dealt with at next annual meeting, ns the nresent election would be under the articles now in operation. On tho motion of Messrs Ballantino and Long . it was decided that it bo a recommendation to tho directorate for the next annual meeting to bring forward a. notice of motion •so that the qualification for the directorate should be being it supplier. The fiction for tbrep positions on tip direr. orate resulted: — Messrs H.

Sutherland 337, G. Preece 323, J. Phillips 265, T. Perry 110. The first three (the retiring directors) were therefore declared elected. Auditor: Mr E. Parrott was re-ap-pointed as auditor. The Chairman intimated that the directors had done nothing as regards the disposal of output, but the prospects were good, in fact better than twelve months ago on the Home marker He could not say what would be done with the produce, but the shareholders could depend that the best would be done. — Mr Long made reference to rumors of one buyer being prepaied to give Is Oid a lb for the butter. — Mr- Astbury replied that if they could get that price they were satisfied that id or jd more could be obtained for the butter at Home. The directors were authorised to mstal four pasteurisers for dealing with skim milk. On the motion of Messrs R. White and Johnson, a vote of thanks was passed to he directors md th-* chairman. THE PIG INDUSTRY. The Chairman movjd the adoption of the special resolution passed by a recent extraordinary general meeting, affirming the principle of the dairy companies taking up the pig industry and recommending the directors to take such steps as they considered would bring about the best results in the way of the manufacture and marketing of pig products. — Mr Preece seconded. The Chairman detailed the principle of co-operation as it affected the dairy farmers, without which they were at the mercy of tverybody. The Governor (Lord Islington) in opening the Auckland show had laid great stress on the value of co-operation. The power the directors would be given by the resolution was a mere bagatelle compared with the business entrusted to them last year. He instanced the farmers co-operating in reference to the freezing companies, putting their butter on the water, the Egmont Box Company, their own factory ' business, but when it came to >tho pig business they were anywhere. He referred to the question being fully dealt with at the previous meeting, also as to the good prospects for this industry according to an offer made by a certain buyer) The scheme was for the representatives of various dairy companies to meet together and decide upon the best means to adopt so as to place the pig-industry on a better footing. If the Eltham Bacon Co.'s premises were bought it would be at valuation. discussion, the Chairman intimated '•hat if the directors thought it necessary to again consult shareholders before doing anything definite they would do so. The motion was carried unanimously. At a subsequent meeting of the directorate, Mr J. Marx was re-elected chairman. /