COOL STORE AT VICTORIA WHARF.

Otago Witness, Issue 3337, 27 February 1918, Page 13

COOL STORE AT VICTORIA WHARF.

BUILDING PRACTICALLY COMPLETED. The cool store which is being built by the Otago Dairy Producers' Cool Storage Company at the end of the Victoria wharf is now practically completed, a portion of the roofing only remaining to be finished. A staxt has been made to store cheese in the new building, and as the place can hold some 16,000 crates, much-needed relief will be given to the dairy factories at the present time, when the flush of season and a not too plentiful supply of overseas ships to carry the produce have brought about a rather acute position. On the 21st Messrs Wm. Black ie, Thos. Parker, J. A. Park, Jas. Dow, Neil, and Stewart (directors of the company), and Mr G. A. Lamb (secretary of the South Island Dairy Association), and Mr H. Mitchell (secretary of the Producers' Company) were shown over the building by the architect (Mr L. D. Coombs). The site on which the store is built is 162 ft by 61ft. The constructional walls of the buildling ara of brickwork, the floor is of concrete, and the roof is tiled.. All the walls and the ceiling are insulated with pumioe. Provision has been made for ventilating the cheese during the cool hours of the night time by providing a large number of vermin-proof ventilator openings and five electric fans, theso latter being calculated to replace 11,000 cubic feet of air per minute. The building is lit by electricity, but during cool weather light is obtained from windows on the south side. These windows are provided with insulated shutters. There is a loading platform 80ft long by 6ft wide. This is protected from rain by an overhanging verandah. A grader's office, 15ft by 12ft, is provided. A feature worthy of mention in connection with the new store is the fact that the roof tiles are the first New Zealand manufactured tiles of the Marseilles pattern to bo used in Dunedin. These were manufactured in Temuka. They are high-grade quality, and there can be no doubt that tho manufacture of the tiles is going to be a very big industry in the dominion. The contract price of the store was £4279, and the contractors (Messrs Jas. M'Gill and Sons) have made a fine job of a particularly solid! structure. Tho directors who looked over the store last week were well pleased with what they saw. Mr Park was particularly enthusiastic as to the usefulness of the store. As one who has spont a lifetime in our midst, ho takes a great pride in his town and the province of Otago, and views with the greatest satisfaction any movement

which tends towards their expansion. The project to erect the store was token up by a few far-seeing men (of whom Mr Lamb proved a most energetic worker), and now the wisdom of the project is apparent to all the directors of tho dairy companies of Otago, and there is a rush to secure space in the building. Mr Park is so impressed with tho great possibilities of the dairy industry in Otago that he looks forward with laudable confidence to the next few years, when ho considers that it will be necessary to erect two or three more similar stores to meet the growing demand! for space. All those who have tho welfare of Dunedin and Otasro at heart will heartily hop© that Mr Park's expectations will be fully realised.