CITY IMPROVEMENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3833, 30 August 1927, Page 10

CITY IMPROVEMENTS.

NEW TEA WAREHOUSE. Ever since Dunedin was founded by the pioneer settlers the solidity and progressiveness of her commercial firms have been distinctive features of .the city’s development. While yet a young and growing city, huge commercial structures have been erected to cope with the ever-increasing trade of the province, and to-day there is a group of bonds, stores, warehouses, and factories the size, number, and progressiveness of which are a source of pride to all who are interested in our commercial prosperity. The latest addition to this ever-increas-ing section is a large, up-to-date tea warehouse which has been erected by Messrs J. Rattray and Son, Ltd., in Vogel street. The premises were lately occupied by •Messrs Paterson and Barr as a store, and they have been redesigned and reconstructed into one of the largest and most up-to-date tea warehouses in New Zealand, equipped with the most modern machinery for the blending, weighing, and packing of the firm’s special blends of tea. There are four floors and a basement of a total area of some 8000 square feet, all of which have been designed and fitted up so that the tea may be blended and packed not only expeditiously and economically, but also on the most hygienic and scientific principles. When it is stated that during the whole process of blending and packing the tea is untouched by tho human hand, some conception of the efficiency and ingenuity of the machinery installed is obtained. Even to the lay mind, the process is most interesting. First, the tea is carried in bulk to the top floor by an electricallyoperated lift. Here it is placed in an electrically-driven blending machine, which not only uniformly blends the different varieties of fine Ceylon tea which are used to make the firm’s well-known blends, but at the same time extracts the rust and other impurities. The machine is capable of blending 40001 b of tea in an hour, and is the most modern imported into New Zealand for this purpose. The tea, now blended, cleaned, and purified, is carried through chutes to the packing room, where it is weighed into canisters or packets by an electricallydriven machine. It is passed on to another electrically-driven machine—the compressor—which, as the name implies, presses the tea tightly into the packets and containers. The tea is then ready for the market.

An important feature of every up-to-date tea warehouse is the tea experts’ room, where the various varieties of tea are tasted and examined before blending. A large, well-lighted room, fitted with every modern requirement, has been provided for this purpose. In fact, Messrs Rattray and Son, Ltd., have spared no expense in building and equipping their new tea warehouse, and everything has been planned with a view to the scientific and hygienic production of the choicest tea by the most economical method. Mr D. G. Mowat, architect, and the Love Construction Company were responsible for the designing and building of this fine, new tea warehouse.