Lowgarfh Dairy Company.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 81, 10 August 1923, Page 8

Lowgarfh Dairy Company.

ANNUAL MEETING. At the annual meeting of tho Lowgarth Dairy Company held yesterday Mr A. D. Johnson (chairman of directors) presiding, the annual report was presented, sitating that another successful season had been held. Tho output exceeded that of last year by 10 tons of cheese and 2J tons of butter. Tho con&ignmsni policy had been continued with satisfactory results, so far as were indicated by the available returns, and tho quality of cheese had met with favourable comment. Supplied had received Is 9d per lb for -butter-fat and the balance-sheet shoved thai. £2i74, equal to Ud per lb fat, wa? yet to be distributed. The unsoh! cheese had been valued on a sat'.. ba«is. The quantity of milk received as 10,020,3571 b which, with an averago test of 4.06, .produced 407,2521 b of butter-fat. The fiactqry weight' of cheese was 1,104,1291 b and whey butter 53,7501 b, while 15,2761 bof creamery butter was also manufactured. The quantity of milk to one lb of cheese was 9.0-1, and the yield was sot down at 2.79.

In moving the adoption of the report and balance-sheet, the chairman congratulated suppliers upon tlr past season's returns. Their bal wee-sheet would oompare favourable with that of any other facto r y ii faranaki, and next year they hope' to do even better owing to an in creased number of suppliers. Tb creamery butter as yet unsold ha'* been valued at Is 4d per lb, and the WOO crates of cheese at 6£d. He had that morning received advice that hater shipments had realised 103; and 110 s per cwt., so that it was reasonable to expect that the final payments /would be oooisiue ably in creased. Only one small quantity of 22 cratoa had not reached the market to date. The milk received a; the factory had not equalled the sup ply for' last season, but the test had risen, so that the quantity of fa; remained very nearly the same. He vished particular notice 'to be taken .'f the figures dealing with the yield and the number of lbs of milk required to manufacture lib of cheese. These figures wore a credit to the factory and manager. The manufacturing cost of cheese had been 4-5 d per lb fat, which 'was also a cause for congratulation. The company vas in a .splendid position financially, the overdraft having now been completely wiped offi. In conclusiiun. he thanked the manager, the sec:e tary, the directors and the staff fo; their loyal co-operation. Mr T. Malone, in seconding, tb. motion for the adoption of 'the repart and balance-sheet, referred to the fact that it cost the company £715 for exchange, which amounto'i to nearly }d per ib butter-fat. Lasst year this charge had been practical iy nil, but this year they had bee; 1 asked to pay 35a per £IOO on ad vances on sight drafts and the charge, on surplus was 255. . ■'

The chairman replying said thai, the amount shown for exchange was the worst item on the balance-sheet, but there was some consolation in looking at the interest charges, which were only £lB9 83 9d on a* turnover of £-45,490. He also pointex! out that there was a saving of oven £IOO in wages or.vjtag to the factory making butter during several months of the year. Replying to a further question regardhig the New Zealand Rennet Company, Mr Johnwa said that at the annuai meeting of the company m Palmerston North it-had been explained that the company only asked for fair support from , factories. Their rennet was guaranteed, and they would replace any orders delivered in an unsound condition. He thought they should support the Rennet Company, because by purchasing from it they could ensure a regular supply of fresh rennet. He asked their manager (Mr J. L. Taylor) to give an opinion on the subject.

Mr Taylor said he had always found New Zealand rennet very suitable for their purpose and he would use ict in p oferonco to other makes. The reason they had not used it last year was boeau.se it had been found impossible to obtain a definite" price from the company. Latest quotations were about £3 10s per barrel, as against £5 for the foreign article.

The motion to adopt tho report and balaiiee-sheet was then carried.

Two new directo s were required to replace Messrs E. J. Fearon (deceased), and J. "W. J. Gardiner, who had lofb the district. Messfrs L. Babbington, A. T. Sulzberger and T. Hall were nominated, and Messrs Hall and Sulzberger were elected. Mr J. H. Thomas was re-elected auditor.

Tlio chairman (Mr A. D. Johnson) paid a tribute to the work of their late chairman (Mr E. J. Fearon), whoso untimely death had deprived the company of one of its most esteemed and useful members. A vote of sympathy was passed to the relatives.

A communication was received from the National Bank of Now Zealand stating that the Associated Banks had under consideration a method of payments- by dairy companies to fcupnb'ers which would give "^ '■'''!arable relief from the present amount of cledeal work involved to both the banks and dairy companies. It was suggested that every dairy company should, a,s far as possible, obtain from those snpnlievs who kept banking authority to place tlio?* n,mV thly cheques to their credit at tho'bafik. IhVftiethod would

operate as follows i—Assuming that

a dairy company held authority from, say, 50 of its supplier? banking at the same battle, it would draw cgie cheque l'o r the aggregate amount payable to those suppliers*, make up pay-in slips for each name, and lodge tho deposits with the bank. The company would act similarly with those suppliers banking with any other institution. T o i the company would accrue • the following advantages : (a) The drawing of one che que instead of 50 cheques, which would have to be 1 signed by two or more officials of the company; (b) only on© entry to check in the pass book; (c) the saving of stamp duty and postages.—lt was felt that as suppliers of their particular factory did their banking in Eltham and in Stratford the proposal would be inoperative so far as the Lowgarth factory wa« concerned, and the letter was received. In view of* the excellent returns at'the factory, it was decided to vote a bonus of £25 to the manager (Mr J. L. Taylor), with a letter of appreciation of his services. Bonuses of £5 were also voted to the buttermaker, and the late first assistant, and Mr Charlie, Darrah. In this connection the chairman made a vigorous appeal to suppliers to bring good clean milk to tho factory and to assist the manager to turn out a. good article. The usual honorarium was voted to the chairman, and a vote of thanks was carried to the ladies who assisted at luncheon.