BUTTER BOXES.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6911, 9 January 1906, Page 3

BUTTER BOXES.

HOW THKF ARE MADE IN

HAMILTON

It may not he generally known that more butter boxes ure being made every day at Messrs Ellis and Buraand's factory, in Hamilton, thin at any other establishment in the Auckland province. Yesterday atturaooD, a representative of the aikato Times, under the gonial guidance of Mr J. W. Ellis, took a run through lhe butter box depirtmont of the large and coastantly increasing works in Grey-street, West. There, in a great airy room, tilled with such a din of machinery that speech atd hearing, to one accustomed to quieter p.aoes, were somewhat difficult, the planing m ichine was turning out long lengths of smooth yellowish-white kahikttea boards. Near by stood a circular bench, where the boards were being '• rapidly cut into the squares whieh were to turm the sides of the boxes. These in their turn reached to the waxing machine, where they were fed between a piir of levolving rollers, of which the lower one was half immersed in a bath of Melted paraffin wax. As tho boards passed through, this roller gave a thin tiim of wax to one side of each.

(Jiose alongside stands the priutiug press, W'here the brands of the st-verai dAry companies are marked on the boards. This looked a little more familiar to thy pressman, who saw ink rollers at the top, and a block Lent around a cylinder below Ue- - tween that and another cylinder, still lower, ' v the I oards receive pressure enough to indent the design well into the wood. They are feil to the cylinders mechauicaHv; the attendant boys place them in a little pile on one side and take them away ou the other, and the machine does the rest. But the last act is the most interesting of all. It can be appreciated by anybody w ho has ever driven a nail—aud who has _" JL Dot ? In the upper works of the liailp, driving machine one sees wire nails in even ranks, points downwards. The rows end over descending tubes, which conduct each pail, as it falls, to the exact spot whore it is to enter the wood. The operator -a lightning-handed boy—rushes thebox?ides into position and presses a le7er with his foot, and in that one moment the whole row of nails along one angle of the box are driven from point to head. The whole eight nailings are done in less tima thaa a joiner with a hammer could drive one of Ihe rows of nails.

Beyond the boxes, butter kegs were coming into existence. 'lhinner boirds than those of the box-is were being bent bow-shaped over curved blocks by meaiis of levers and the edges cut oif, leaving them tapering correctly towards each end. The circular tops and bottoms sre cut, and pfegjpthe hooped and finished according to the ancient methods of cooperage, greatly accelerated by np-to-date labour-saving appliances. Messrs Ellis and Burnand were turning out, just before the holidays, 1100 butter boxes a day, aud They are sole makers to the New Zealand Dairy Association. Messrs Ambury English rift tad Co., the Cambridge Co-operative Dairy '■Jf Company, besides almost every butter making c-DCern in ibe southern pirt of the Auckland province, and some in the further North. Such is the power of machinery that only a d> zen hands are employed in this department. After a quick walk through other parts of the factory, where the totara, rirau and matai of the King Country are convt-rted into sashes, doors, skirtings, liuing, flooring _ and every other shape and kind of building and joinery. This part of the factory has already been described in the Waikato Times, though it must be said that considerable extensions have been made since our representative's previous visit. Another new department, however, is just being started for the mauufacture of high-class furniture. Conducted on the same general principles as the rest of the works, thia will doubtless reward just as well the enterprise aad business acumen of the proprietors, and skill of the workmen employed. One of the first articles to be turned out is a kitchen cabinet, just completed, which combines a table with certain handy drawers, bread and meat boards and particularly convenient bins for flour and the like. Altogether .Messrs Ellis and Burnand, Limited, are now employing 53 hands, and their business ceutinues to increase.