A PATEA INDUSTRY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 6965, 26 September 1901, Page 3

A PATEA INDUSTRY.

(By our Travelling Reporter),

While recently in Patca, I was shown through Messrs Matthews and Co.'s huge kick-making establishment there, by Mr A. Matthews. I was first shown through their commodious offices, and was then taken over a well-built Hoffman kiln used for burning purposes. This building, which is built of bricks made in tho yard, contains no less than ono hundred and fifty thousand bricks, and docs the workmen great credit, both in tho making of the bricks and the building. This splendid kiln is capable of burning 120,000 bricks at one setting. I was next shown through the" making shed," and saw a dozen men at work at the pug mill, and cutting bricks, This machine is putting through CO,OOO bricks a week, The engine and boilers, which I next viewed, reflect great crcc' : t on tho owner for tho way in which they are kept, Tho partly-made bricks arc wheeled into the drying sheds preparatory to being put into the burning kiln, Tho material lor making bricks is brought by tram from a hill, some six acres in extent, which contains first-class brick making material. Mr Matthews informs mo that in the course of a month ho will have a larger inaclric-for brickmaking. This machhc, which will arrive direct from America, will bo tho only one of its kind in New Zealand. Tho bricks that are turned out are first-class, Messrs Matthews and Co. are unablo to keep pace with the demand for their bricks, but hope to do so when their new machine arrives,