THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18742, 23 June 1924, Page 11

THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

MEETING OF SUPPLIERS. IE AWAMUTU DISTRICT. [BY TELEGE.APIT. OWN CORRESPONDENT:.] TE AWAMUTU. Saturday, At the annual meeting of the Ta Awamutti and district milk suppliers to the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, the chairman, Mr. J. T. Young, congratulated the suppliers on the fact that in a few months the district would have its own butter factory. Another director, Mr. Bruce, gave some figures dealing with the company's output for the past season. He said that the following quantities of produce had been manufactured to March 31: 17,921 tons of butter, 3500 tons of cheese, 545 tons of casein, 3185 tons of milk powder. The season, would not be such a good one as last year for.output. This wa B due to.the bad winter experienced by the dairy farmers of the South- Auckland Province twelve months ago, and also the particularly dry spell in December and January. On "a butter- basis, however, he said the reduction was very small, amounting to 5 per cent., while the number of suppliers to the company had increased substantially. . " ..'-',.. ; In'answer to a question, Mr. Sinclair, the assistant manager, outlined the company's new cartage scheme. He said that the directors had considered the problem for several months, and they believed the solution arrived, at wag ii the best interests of the shareholders of the company as a whole. He appealed to the suppliers in closely settled areas to recognise the claims -• of< the backblocks. The company was attempting tp place the backblock suppliers in as favourable a-position as possible, and for that reason had guaranteed that all cream within twelve miles of a factory or a railway station would be carried at the rate of id. per lb butter-fat. He maintained that the direct delivery premium of v per lb was causing serious friction in the back country districts, and the directors had only two alternatives open. to them. First, to abolish the premium, or to spend considerable sums of mom;y erecting small factories in order to retain the supply.' The latter course, he .said, was not desirable, because it would send up, the cost of manufacture, which in the New Zealand Dairy Company to-day was the lowest in the Dominion. The directors had, therefore, decided that the per lb for direct delivery would be done away with, and he asked the Te Awamntu suppliers not to take a narrow or pprochial view, but to realise that the directors had adopted a line of policy which was beneficial to the shareholders as a. whole. "-'",„