PALMERSTOS NORTH

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 25

PALMERSTOS NORTH

(By Our Special Reporter.)

Thursday. After a good spell of dry weather, „f a Jit in at an early hour this mornthe fall becoming very heavy dur- ! °\he day. To dairymen and graziers ftecome in good time pastures hasi D cr been thoroughly dried up. Should the rain continue, however, it will prove disastrous to tne crops, as m many instances the gram is ready for the reaper. . . - . , A remarkable dairying experience has been observed in the Palmerston North district during the recent dry weather. The butter fat tests at the creamery have been unprecedentedly low. Naturallv the butter fat test is low m wet weather and high in dry weather, the decree of succulence m the feed regulatnst the water content of the milk.. The nature of the food is not the only factor in determining the butter fat content of milk, however. The period of lactation, the condition of the animal surrounding circumstances at the time of milking, the thoroughness .of the milking operation, and any variation in treatment are all more or less responsible for variation in the butter fat percentage, but when details cause variations they are regular, and are only noted in certain herds. Therefore, the present general depreciation of the butter fat percentage is all the more peculiar. As butter fat is what the milk-supplier is paid for, and as during the dry months of summer he expects a big increase in the quality of his milk, the low percentage generally recorded is the cause of considerable surprise and some discontent. The matter rests with the herds alone, for the testing at some of the creameries has been carefully checked and re-checked by a Government official. No doubt a satisfactory explanation will soon be forthcoming. Speaking at the Bacon Company’s meeting to-day, Mr J. D. Anderson said that the company had standing orders for more than double the amount of bacon it. was putting through. The chairman of directors of the North Island Bacon Company, Mr Carl Anderson, was not able to preside at the annual meeting of the company today, owing to a painful accident which he suffered a few days ago. While attending to a traction engine a pipe burst, and a jet of steam caught him in the face, severely scalding him. It is expected that nc permanent injury will result. The North Island Bacon Company, which was a failure in co-operation, has been converted into a joint-stock company.

During the past two years the North Island Bacon Company has paid its suppliers £1248 11s od over and above the highest market rate for pork, taking the rate at -jd per pound which is well within the mark. Mr J. A. Gilruth, Chief Government “Vet.,” will visit Palmerston on Saturday and consult with a sub-committee of the A. and P. Association in reference to the Dairy Farm Commission suggested by Mr J. T. Lang. It lias been decided that Wednesday shall be the day on which the weekly half-holiday will be observed in Palmerston North. At a special meeting of the Borough Council, held to consider the matter, the following resolution was passed:—“That the executive of the Municipal Association be requested to approach the Government and ask them to fix a half-licl iday for the colony.” The first co-operative bacon company m the North Island, and the largest bacon curing concern south of the Line, has failed as a co-operative project, and s passed into a joint stock company. At the inception of the North Island Co-operative Bacon Company, everything was present to ensure success—a monopoly of a famous method of curinocommodious and up-to-date works, a°n assured market and unlimited demand. imkin S tv aS T ely anti ”S- The weak the chain Tvas, however soon holder r fn 3n 6 co-operative shareproduct ° n ' vllolu t he supply of the raw his Tun Jrt COn 1 ?° C J’ 7 as lukewarm in the and aded to comply with cess ?Tf ary to at tain sueflainw f of & total of 4000 shares the tP «f the Palmerston forth 2328 rroun dmg districts only took un *£. a? r S“ t ; ng « J .£,, o? financial, ‘ihere h.".‘ ““I' ° nlj ' 24o such a snlen f ffil h « SUJ : el y never been Producer to co3Snl » P ° i Uty , for the s Sbti s its it borhs tfl = Stir charges, shipped ti l? 80 , al } d curing North Isla nd P at a profit Tins D. Anderson ntfnT 1 “? s > said Mr suggested to thl ni P] c f m S to-day, P an y the possibility hristchurch comJ™ a central position ; °fi a hacon factory They immediSv t - ho 1 N ° rth Island, works of Messrs q , uired the freezing jero standing at W whi °h erected tho necossn™ odvllle > and tional buildings for and addiMorepork” bacL manufa cture of • But the co-opera-

tor moves but slowly, aud conservative methods still bind him hand and foot, as they do in other branches of agriculture. In producing pigs he is in the same plight as in regard to economical miik production—absolutely no direct State assistance. His only education is the baeon-curer himself, and when he, as a shareholder, employs the curer he is not ahvays ready to take instruction. This was the experience of the North Island Bacon Company. Their co-ope-rative shareholders, with few exceptions; would not comply with these necessary conditions, aud there being proprietary curers who would accept inferior stock, the company found itself with a great demand but. wretchedly poor supply of the raw product. Again, owing to the poor financial support accorded the company by the shareholders and a lack of the true spirit of co-operation, the company found itself without die means of conducting the business on sound commercial lines. In order to escape having overdue calls docked from their cheques many shareholders sold their pigs to outsiders, and thus put the company in the position of being unable to fulfil its orders or of utilising its works to their full extent. This extraordinary condition of affairs has at last reached a crisis, and the company has now been placed in a position of conducting its business on a satisfactory and payable basis. It will no doubt, prove a bitter lesson to the co-operative dairymen of the district. Friday, 7 p.m.

Mr F. Pirani, M.H.R., will address his constituents at the Theatre Royal on February 3rd. Mr H. R. Cooper, late of the firm of Skerrett and Wylie, arrived in Palmerston to-day to take up the practice of the law as a partner in the extended business of the well-known Wellington firm of Bell. Gully, Bell and Myers. The Palmerston firm is designated Bell, Gully and Cooper. Already there are signs that the great national game of football is to take its ptoper position among the winter sports of Palmerston North during the coming season. Since the 1899 season, when the Manawatu representatives scored five points to eight against a fine representative Wellington team, including such players as Bonar, Devere and Kelly, football in this district has made slow progress. Last season it was hardly up to junior form. Fortunately several good Rugby players have lately settled in the district-, including Wylie, a Wellington representative, and it is expected that a fillip will be given to the game which will enable it to be put on a sound basis, and so restore the Manawatu Union to a level with o', her district unions.

When the principle of dairying cn shares was introduced into certain districts of the colony, notably in Taranaki and Manawatu, it was thought that the great drawback to the success of the industry would be overcome, namely, the labour difficulty. It is i:pparently proving, however, that the possibilities of the shares dairyman is regulated, as in the case of the struggling proprietary dairyman, by the number of children in his family. Cases have been brought under the viator's' notice where men milking on shares could run double the number of cows on tne land if they could secure labour at a reasonable rate. It is contended that the only solution of the difficulty is the encouragement of immigration of the right class of labourers. With all respect to this opinion, it is undoubted that improved methods of dairying and the milking of first-class cows instead of “scrubs” is the correct solution of the difficulty. The abattoir question is creating considerable local interest. Last Tuesday the Borough Council decided, by a majority of two, to regulate its powers, respecting the establishment of an abattoir to the Longburn Freezing Company. The decision, however, does not by any means represent popular opinion on the matter, and a public meeting will shortly be called to protest against the action of the Council. The principal objection to a small abattoir is that the by-products could not be profitably dealt with, but with the abattoir established on a large scale, with a view to catering to an extensive outside connection, this objebtion cannot bo raised. It is considered that tho spirit of the Act will be controverted if the Council does not establish and control its own works. It is was intended to kill only for local butchers, an arrangement with a private freezing company might he more convenient and economical, but as it is intended that the Palmerston abattoir shall serve the districts and townships adjacent to the different railway lines, its establishment should have several advantages. Dead meat can be carried at about half the rate of live stock. The cost of slaughtering would not be so great as if done by the local butcher himself, and meat so killed under proper inspection would have preference over that locally slaughtered. The meat could be distributed to other centres in insulated cool trucks. A strong argument against the freezing works being used as a municipal abattoir is that the convenience of the butchers would not be the first consideration, but on the other hand they would only be attended to when convenient. Altogether the establishment by the borough of municipal abattoirs is most desirable, and the minority of progressive

■pints in the Council who supported that view are to be commended on the stand they have taken.