Settlers having failed from lack of that special knowledge in business management and of finance requisite for success in dairying and marketing.the product for themselves, have accepted an offer made by Mr O. W. Oldham, proprietor of the Western Packing and Canning Works. He agrees, for a bonus of .£2OO, to erect a central factory for butter and cheese-making, equal to dispos ing of the milk of 1000 cows, the outlay on buildings and plant to be not less than .£2OOO, and which will probably be over that sum. It is intended to include—and this is considered most important —a re frigerator, so that the temperature can be regulated from the incoming of tho raw product to the outgoing of the manufac tured article. Milk will bo paid for at the average price per gallon ruling on the coast.
The factory will be equipped and ready for working by September next.s3Two con tiguous districts have already agreed upon sites for creameries or skimming stations, and the proprietor of the factory will ar range for others wherever settlers can muster the requisite number of cows. Whenuakura starts with 200 cows, Little Taranaki probably about the same, each placo some three miles from the port, but already it is reported that the milk of one thousand cows will be available by the time the factory starts. The probabilities are that tho Patea factory will develop into a large concern. The conditions are in every way favourable. Tho adjacent blocks of land, Kakaramea and Whenua kura, are among the most fertile on the coast, with Manutahi to the north and Waverley on the south, equally rich lands, with good main and bye-roads, and rail way available as feeders from creamery centres.
