THE TAIERI AND PENINSULA. MILK SUPPLY COMPANY, DUNEDIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 17 April 1901, Page 14

THE TAIERI AND PENINSULA. MILK SUPPLY COM PANY , DUNEDIN.

EXCELLENT MANAGEMENT AND ITS RESULTS. Probably in no business concern in the colony lire the highly satisfactory results which follow the best management more strikingly shown than by the Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply Company, Dunedin. The business was first established to supply milk and cream to the people of Dunedin and its suburbs. Commencing in 1884 by tho issue of 3000 shares of £1 each, its fir«t establishment consisted of a small factory and a dwelling house, the whole costing about £660. Considerable prejudice had to be overcome, and the usual difficulties, common to young businesses, were met. At first the company were only able to take a proportionate quantity of milk from each of its customers, who had to dispose of the balance of their milk and butter at very unsatisfactory prices. The invention and perfecting of the separator, and the coming into use of the Babeoek test for gauging the amount of butter fat, first opened the way for the rapid extension of the business of this prosperous concern. In 1889, a butler plant was added ; the concern turned into a butter factory ; and in 1893 arrangements were made for the first skimming otations at Sandymount and at M^iwaka. Early in the nineties two of the then directors, who were inteiestecl in the business, took charge of the concern, and since then its business has progressed by leaps and bounds. These gentlemen, who etill retain control of the business, are Mr William James. Bolt, the general manager, and Mr Walter Riddell, the factory manager. Ihe factory buildings occupy 112 ft frontage to Great King street, and extend back a distance of 169 ft. The buildings fronting th* street are chiefly occupied by the offices and directors' board room, while at one side a paved roadway gives accommodation for the company's carts to pass below one of Dobson'.s patent hoi&tp. The motive power is supplied by a 20 hoise-power compound engine for the freezing machinery, while a Tangye engine drives the other machinery. Only the veiy bc=t material is employed in the factory. Recently the management have imported Higgm's patent solt. By doing po it has secured a superior article at less cost. The whole premises arc lit by the elctric light generated on the piemis,e«. When the cream ar rives at the factoiy it is ele\ated by Dobson's hoi^t to the second floor, wheic it is run o\cr the cooler, and by gravitation into the vats, where it remains until ripe. For a long time the method and question of cooling was an important one in dairy work. For two years Mr Riddell, in conjunction with several Dunedin gentlemen, »\perimcnicd in this direction, and the ie«ult has been the adoption of a system, on tiie punciple of the Lawience cooler, by which ice vater from the ice tank is forced through pipes and is then pumped b?di to the ice

lank. By the adoption of this plan the cream throughout the -iat3 is kept at a uniform temperature. The milk icceivecl at the factory i= treated by the De Lai a] separator m a, separate room. From the-e ats the cream run=s by gra\ itation into four churns, ruli of 5001b enpncity. 'The chinning io«i' has (ho hulicr tables, each worked witk double sets o£ i oiler-*. The Luttcr, fre^h fioui the churn, is woiked on the first of the-^e table?, and saltpd. It is then placed for 24 hours m the cool rooi.i at about 50deg. It is then taken out, run over the second table, weighed, and packed. The company mpp'y abont 500 tons of butter to Dunedin and the surrounding diotiicts each year, while the bulk of the balance goes to the Home vnnrket. Formeily farmers reeched about 4d per lb for their butter from groceia; now they get 9d per lb. Formerly the farmer's wife and his daughters were slaves to churning and butter making ; now they are freed from this work. Formerly milk and butter could bo sent to Dunedm from bhort distances only ; now the produce of about 12,000 cows is *ent to the Dunedin factory from 30 skimming Nation 5 , from Tokarahi, 80 miles north, and fiom Edendale, 90 miles south. The expansion of the business is shown by these riguif 1 .- : — Year. Tumo\er. 1834 £ 5,000 1892 13,000 1900 111,053 TLe company now pay about £15,000 a month to the milL suppliers, v. i>ile its close on 800 shartholdoi -> an> paid a dnidenc! of 8 per rent, per, arm in on their capita] m- ■\ Cbred m the coi.c ;!":. It !'a- be°n lound th.it the best cow for dairy purposes is tie fir-t ciocs between tho shorthorn bull and the Ayr^hue cow, care being taken that £<nimal'- of the best milkingstrain 5 are used. Such a cow faniy fed ought tvj be v, orth £1 to £1 5s a month, and £3 ;<> £3 p. year. 8o widely have the iKhant.!i{s.« ol l ii:-3 dairy f.ietory spread and Iji. on ic'.t, t ! )it *[ie «iir.ii.: t <einc'i ( . find it ne-ces.-.iry to extend t'^eir premises by increasing the chuinmg room trom four to six churn?. This will enable the present output per day ot =ix toiife to be increased to nine tons dpily. Beie, a-> elsewhere, the recent dairy legislation has been of much advantage. !>ut one o.iiy need go through the factory to tee and to be convinced that the very gieat lufco-i of tlie conoprn. and the great benefits ir I'as conferred on its milk suppliers, is durctly traceable to the general manager, Mr Folt, and to Mr Riddell, the faetoiy manager. I'iese advantages and benefits are easily available to those farmers m the d:«tricts within a hundred miles of Dunedin. in whic'i no skimming fetation now exists. — New Zealand Faimer.