Dairy  Industry.

TAIERI AND PENINSULA MILK SUPPLY COMPANY

Mr. WILLIAM JAMES BOLT

Mr. WALTER BIDDELL.

TAIERI AND PENINSULA MILK SUPPLY COMPANY OF DUNEDIN, LTD. Directors: Messrs. A. McFarlane (chairman), A. Stuart, U. Roger, W. Nicholson, and J. Wright. Head office and Principal Factory, Great King Street, Dunedin. Bankers: National Bank of New Zealand. Butter Fac­tories: Dunedin and Mosgiel. Creameries: Sandymount, Purakanui, Portobello, Wickliffe Bay, Brighton, Outram, Allanton, Hampden, Middlemarsh, Gladfield, and Otakou, Factory Manager, Mr. Walter Riddell. Business Manager, Mr. William James Bolt. Both of the latter named gentlemen sat on the board of directors prior to their appointments at a critical period of the company’s history. This large and prosperous co-operative company was established on the l5th of August, 1884, for the purposes of supplying Dunedin city with pure milk. A central depot was established, to which the milk is sent direct from the farms, and from whence it is distributed to consumers. This branch of the business has not been neglected, notwithstanding the great develop­ments in butter making. Monthly payments are made to shareholders, who number about 450, and also to non-shareholders who are suppliers, numbering about seventy, in proportion to the returns received after de­ducting expenses, an advantage being gained by shareholders. Twelve distributing carts are employed daily to dispose of the milk in the city and suburbs. The capital of the company is £10.000 in 10,000 shares of £1 each, of which fifteen shillings per share has been called up. Since the introduction of separators, and the application of freezing to the various processes necessary for the production of good butter of uniform grade and flavour, the business of the Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply Company has enormously increased, as is abundantly shown by the returns which give a turn-over of £5,494 in 1885, against £56,466 in 1897. The latter sum represents £47,569 paid to farmers for their milk. The factory at Great King Street comprises a brick building with frontage of two-stories, erected on the com­pany’s freehold and having 132 feet to the main street. The company’s offices and board room, which are finished in stained woods, occupy a position at the front; and there arc residences for both the managers on the premises. The plant consists of a twelve and a half ton Hercules dry ammonia re­frigerator, a steam engine with forty-horse power boiler, and all the latest up-to-date appliances for producing the very best butter. The Great King Street building has been enlarged to twice the original size by the erection of a splendid factory, the cost of which, together with plant, was about £8,500 the total value of the company’s property in Dunedin being £13,000. All the creameries are supplied with the De Laval Al Alpha separator. It is a notable fact that during the year 1897, 2,350,684 gallons of milk were received, which, on test for value in butter fats, resulted in 2,393,347 gallons or 42,663 gallons more than the actual quantity re­ceived, suppliers getting this advantage under the system of purchase. During the same period 421 tons of butter were manufactured, of which 160 tons were shipped to England, Australia, and Africa, the rest being sold locally. At the back of the section of Great King Street, the company’s stables are situ­ated; these are 132 feet long and contain twenty-two stalls, a like number of horses being required in the business and about sixty hands altogether employed in distribu­tion of milk and at the butter factories and creameries.

Mr. WILLIAM JAMES BOLT, Secretary and Business Manager of the Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply Company, was born in Bristol, Gloucester, England, in 1835. Educated at the Bristol grammar school, he went to sea as a youth and had nine years experience of a sailor’s life, although brought up to the trade of a book-binder. Mr. Bolt visited the Colonies in 1857, left the sea in 1861, and settled in Dunedin three years later, acquiring a dairy farm a few miles north of Dunedin, which he worked until the extension of the business of the Taieri and Peninsula Co. required the whole of his time. He was a member of the Waikouaiti county council for nine years, for two of which he was chairman of that body. During his long residence in Otago he took great interest in local affairs, until the business of the com­pany demanded his undivided attention.

Mr. WALTER BIDDELL. Factory Manager for the Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply Company, was born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1837,- and was educated at the parish school. He came to Dunedin per ship “Grassmere” in 1862, and two years later bought land at the Peninsula, which he used for dairy farming. He was connected with the first co-operative dairy factory in New Zealand— the Pioneer Cheese Factory, of which he was secretary for many years. He conducted ex­periments with samples of butter, specially packed so as to carry all the way to London and back without deterioration. Mr. Riddell was appointed factory manager of the Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply Company in 1891. The system of purchasing milk by the value of butter fats contained—the skim milk being returned—was introduced by him in 1893. For twenty years, he has taken an interest in educational matters as a member of the Peninsula school committee.

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Last modified: 11/15/07