PROPOSED ERECTION OF PIGGERIES IN SOUTHLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2263, 15 July 1897, Page 22

PROPOSED ERECTION OF PIGGERIES IN SOUTHLAND.

(Wyndham Farmer.) A special meeting of milk suppliers to Island Dairy Factory was held in Mataura Island schoolhouse on Saturday evening. About 20 persons attended, and Mr John Spratt (chairman of directors) presided. The Chairman explained the objecb of the meeting. Mr J. B. MacEwan had approached him recently with a view to the erection by him (Mr MacEwan) of large and substantial piggeries of modern design on the factory grounds, conditional on the company agreeing to lot hini have the whole of the whey output for a period of years. Nothing definite j was asked by Mr MacEwan of the suppliers iv j tfce meantime,' beyond eliciting their feeling j towards his scheme. Should such feeliDg be considered sufiiciently favourable by Mr MacEwan, there was no doubt he would place full details of his scheme before them at an early date. One thing, however, might be j mentioned : that if negotiations were brought. | to a head Mr MacEwan would expect valua- j tion, en the oxpiry of his lease, for any buildings he might erect. j In the course of a general discussion which ensued, Mr T. Foster said he was afraid the erection of piggeries in close proximity to the factory i premises would exert a prejudicial influence on the manuftcture of cheese. He added that it eeemed to him rather peculiar that Mr MacEwan vraß now advocating the keeping of pigs adjacent to dairy factories, and yet when he was connected with the dairying service he could not too strongly discountenance anything of the kiod. But if it could be shown that no ill effects would attend their cheese output by the noxious effluvia, arising from the proposed piggeries, he would certainly support such a comprehensive scheme Cor utilising a valuable bye-product. . Mr Brash would support the scheme, provided the piggeries were erected at a reasonable distance from the factory premir is, otherwise he thought the foul odours therefrom would affect their make of cheese. He also drew attention to the fact that the present situation of the whey box was very liable to inundation, and was completely submerged during the last floods in the Mataura. Mr J. D. Shepherd stated that last season he had secured the whey for a nominal sum. If an agreement could be entered into with the directors he was prepared to go to considerable expense in the matter of erecting tanks, pumping apparatus, &c, and also undertake to convey the whey a considerable distance From the factory premises, all to the satisfaction Of the directors. Another objection generally raised was that tinder the proposed -scheme the suppliers would ,be deprived of the right of obtaining any whey at all for their individual requirements. ' Eventually, it was resolved on the motion of Jkteisrs T. Foster *nd Johnston Wyllie— " That this meeting oannot entertain Mr MacEwan's proposals, being of opinion that they would prove detrimental to the best interests of the factory, unless it were provided that the piggeries be erected *t a, considerable distance from the factory premises, on a site to be /approved of by the directors." It was also resolved, on the motion of Messrs R. S. Wilson and T. Foiter— " That tenders be invited for the right to the surplus whey for * period of three years." — An amendment by .Messrs S. Heath and W. Rule, " That the successful tenderer have the right to the whole of

We (Farmer) understand that the directors of the Mataura Dairy Factory Company also met to consider a similar proposal submitted to them by Mr MacEwan, aud that the resolution they arrived at was practically the same aB the first one carried at the Island meeting. The whey rights at Wyndham are held by the cheese-maker on a yearly leas^ , and he runs a large mob of pigs. The model piggery in connection with Edendale Dairy Factory is considered to be one of the finest in the world.