THE KONINI FACTORY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1511, 14 February 1901, Page 53

THE KONINI FACTORY

(By Our Special Correspondent.)

Oil Anniversary clay the erstwhile creamery at Konini, in the Forty-mile Rush, which had previously sent its cream to the Ballance factory, entered on a new era —as a butter factory complete in itself; .and in the evening the event was celebrated in the Konini Town Hall, adjacent to the factory, in a manner worthy of the importance of the occasion. The settlers directly interested mustered in strong force, and numerous guests were present, from the surrounding districts, and?also from Wellington. After ample justice hack been __done to an excellent repast, provided by Host Benzie, of Pahiatua, an exhaustive toast list, interspersed with vocal and instrumental music, made the evening a very enjoyable one. Interesting and very instructive speeches were made by Messrs Samuel Russell, chairman of directors of the company; James Tait, of Ballance factory fame; and Carl Andersen, architect and engineer to the company, who is also a successful and enthusiastic dairy farmer at Rongotea, and chairman of directors of the North Island Bacon Curing Company, which carries on its operations in the refrigerating premises at Woodyiile formerly occupied by Nelson Brothers.

Excellent and humorous speeches were made by Messrs r ‘Kilty” Smith (County chairman), Harold Smith (solicitor), His Worship the Mayor of Pahiatua, and several other gentlemen. As regards the musical entertainment, Mr and Mrs Dash were a host in themselves, and they were ably assisted by Miss Dolan, a visitor to the district.

As it is claimed for the factory that if. is second to none, and perhaps the very best now in operation in this colony, some particulars regarding it may be of interest to our readers. The building, distant about seven chains from the Makakahi river, stands close to the main (Wellington to Hawke's Bay) road. It is constructed of the finest timber that the district could produce, erected on concrete foundations, and comprises receiving and separating room, churning and blitter room, two refrigerating each capable of holding twenty Jmns of butter, packing room, skimmed ■k delivery room, boiler room and cngrSte room, with a separate apartmeut for the refrigerating machinery. On reaching the building the milk is

elevated to the receiving platforms or intakes (of which there are two), by means of a Chamber’s “bandy hoist” (operated by the steam power of the factor}-), capable of rapidly and easily lifting half a ton. The milk is then tipped into the weighing vats, which record the quantity received, after which it flows to the pasteurisers.,. which heat it (steam being the heating agency) to a separating temperature. From the pasteurisers the milk flows to four separators, each capable of skimming 400 gallons per hour. The cooler is a cylindrical corrugated vessel,, the interior of which contains a refrigerating coil, charged with a continuous flow of water, reduced to ilie requisite temperature, 50deg Fall., by direct expansion. The cream is conducted in portable channels from the separators to the top of the cooler, over whose corrugations it then spreads, and flows in a thick film into channels, which convey it to the “ripening” vats, where it stands twenty-four hours preparatory to being churned. Having “ripened,” it is transferred by means of moveable conduits ro the churns, of which, at present, there are two, each capable of churning six-and-a-half hundredweights of butter in forty minutes. The butter having been churned, and the buttermilk run off, and the butter effectively washed in the churns with refrigerated water, it is removed therefrom by means of wooden pats to. the working table. The butter is then placed in the colder cf the two refrigerating chambers, where it remains for about twelve hours, after whiclf it is re-worked, and then passed into the packing room, where it is put up in thoroughly seasoned and well-finished paper-lined white pine boxes, each containing 561 b. The boxes are neatly branded, and each bears the appropriate trade mark of a balance the Ballance factory being the parent establishment of the company. The butter rrilk falls from the churns into an open cemented channel, ending in a concrete tank, whence it is pumped by steam power into the elevated skim milk tank.

A very interesting feature of the company’s operations is that after the milk has been tipped into the weighing vats at the intakes, and up to the time at which the butter has to be removed from the churns, all the intermediate movement and distribution is effected solely by gravitation. It will be readily understood how conducive this is to cleanliness, and what an immense saving in manual energy it represents. The factory’s motive energy consists

of a 12-horse power surface-condensing tandem engine (which is supplied with steam from a fifteen-horse power boiler, by Crabtree and Sons, of Wellington). A Hercules refrigerator, capable of freezing four tons of butter per day, provides the cooling agency. The factory’s water supply is taken from a well which is fed through a,natural gravel filter bed, by the Makakalii river. The water is elevated from the well to overhead tanks, which command the highest floor in the factory, by a steam pump, capable of a duty of 800 gallons per hour, and it is about to be supplemented by a Worthington pump of much greater capacitv.

All dirty and waste water is o irried off by gravitation as fast as it appears to a distance which precludes the possibility of it exerting any mischievous influence.

In short, the factory has been designed, constructed and equipped with all the appliances and conveniences which dairying science and ingenuity have demonstrated as necessary for making a pure and first-class article. At this stage a retrospect- seems called for. Seven years ago the company commenced operations at Ballance with 1000 gallons of milk per day, in a factory estimated to be capable of treating 0000 gallons—a quantity, by the way, then regarded as very unlikely of realisation. During the present season that factory, by adopting expedients, has manipulated 10,000 gallons daily, and now they have the new factory at Konini, at present churning cream representative of 10.600 gallons per day. When it is considered that the country now producing these results was, nine or ten years ago, primeval forest. one cannot fail to reflect that the men who have effected such a transformation, and who have called to their aid triumphs of invention and discovery, in the form of dairy factories, are worthy of high recognition, and deserve to be placed among the heroes of the times. Much of the success of the company’s operations is attributed to its chairman of directors, Mr Samuel Russell, of Konini, and also to Mr James Ta.it, of Ballance, a former chairman. Other directors are Messrs Marriott and John Sinclair, cf Ballance, and Alexander McFarlane, of Hamua, the entire directorate being very appropriately composed of farmers. The shareholders, generally, are also farmers, some cf them, -individually, sending to the factory daily the produce of as many as seventy cows.

Your correspondent is indebted for valuable information to Mr Russell, Mr Carl Andersen, and to Mr Kelly, the capable and courteous manager of the factory.

Rape, Mustard, Thousand-headed Cabbage and other agricultural seeds of best quality from Nimmo and Blair, Dunedin.