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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

Dairy Industry

Dairy Industry.

South Canterbury Dairy Co., Limited, Timaru. Directors: Messrs A. C. Thompson (chairman), W. B. Howell, R. H. Bowie, C. W. Isitt, J. H. Swainey, H. Sadler, J. Jackson, W. Wreford, and J. E. Hurdley; Secretary, Mr. E. B. Amyes; Manager, Mr. W. C. Dixon. This Company was incorporated in May, 1901, with a capital of £10,000 in £1 shares. A good proportion of the capital has been alloted. The factory stands on an acre and a half of land on Maori Hill, and has been at work since February, 1902. It has creameries in operation at Temuka, Albury, Pleasant Point, Fairlie, and St. Andrews. The building is of brick, with damp-proof walls and concrete floors throughout, and the department consists of separator and cream and butter rooms, and engine and boiler houses; the cool chambers are divided into two departments. There is a ten-horse power engine, and the separator has a capacity of 440 gallons per hour, and the large box churn a capacity of 600lbs. The boiler has a capacity of fourteen-horse power. The cream cooling vat is of the latest design by Topliss and Middleton, and there is a six-foot butter worker by the same firm. One of Anderson's butter printers, driven by belt power, is also employed. The factory is fitted with a primus pasteuriser, and a three-ton Hercules refrigerator. The Company, in addition to producing butter and supplying milk daily to a large number of customers by two delivery carts, sells its produce of butter locally, any surplus being exported.

Mr. William Colston Dixon, Manager of the South Canterbury Dairy Company's Factory at Timaru, was born in Dunedin in 1870. He was educated in his native city, gained early experience as an accountant, and was afterwards trained as an engineer. Mr. Dixon was secretary and assistant for a year at the Le Bon's Bay butter factory, Banks' Peninsula, and for three years subsequently he performed the duties of manager and secretary. In 1898 he removed to Rangiwahia, near Feilding, Rangitikei, and had charge of the factory there for two years, when he left to take charge of the Tai Tapu factory, where he remained for a year. He has had charge of the factory at Timaru since its establishment, and directed the preliminary operations in connection with its construction. During Mr. Dixon's term at Rangiwahia, the butter from that factory scored the highest average for all graded butter at the Wellington cool stores, and in the following year the Tai Tapu company experienced a like result at the Lyttelton cool stores under his management—a record he bids fair to maintain in his present position. As a volunteer Mr. Dixon served for three years in the Dunedin City Guards.

Ferrier, photo.Mr. W. C. Dixon.

Ferrier, photo.
Mr. W. C. Dixon.

Mr. Edward Burton Amyes, Secretary to the South Canterbury Dairy Company, was, in conjunction with the chairman, Mr. A. C. Thompson, one of the prime movers in the establishment of the South Canterbury Dairy Company, Limited. He was born in Hereford, England, and as a boy arrived in Port Chalmers in 1862, by the ship “Bombay.” He was educated at Waikouaiti and Palmerston, and gained experience of farming, and of mercantile life in the Palmerston district. After two years in the North Island Mr. Amyes farmed for some years in the Selwyn district, and for four years afterwards near Palmerston. He settled in South Canterbury in 1888, and has been engaged in farming in several parts of the district. He is an enthusiast in regard to dairy factories, and there is every reason to expect that his Company will be very successful. As a volunteer he served in the Palmerston Rifles for two years. He was married, in 1881, to a daughter of Mr. Robert Oxley, of Waikouaiti, and has two sons and one daughter.

Ferrier, photo.Mr. E. B. Amyes.

Ferrier, photo.
Mr. E. B. Amyes.