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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Cardiff

Cardiff.

Cardiff is a small settlement in the centre of a dairy farming country, and is thirty-three miles west of New Plymouth, and four miles west of Stratford, on the main road to Opunake. It is on the south-east slope of Mount Egmont, forms part of the western riding of the county of Stratford, and is in the Ngaire survey district of the Taranaki land district. The settlement has a store, at which the business of the post office is conducted; a public school; a dairy factory, and a Primitive Methodist church. The country, which is undulating, was originally covered with native forest. Good shooting is obtainable in the neighbourhood.

The Cardiff Public School, which was established about the year 1886, stands on a glebe of seven acres. The building is of wood and iron, contains a class room and two porches, and has accommodation for eighty children; there are fifty-seven names on the roll, and the average attendance is forty-five. It is in charge of a mistress who is supported by an assistant.

Miss Catherine Mary McCarthy, who has been Headmistress of the Cardiff school since the year 1905, is a native of Westland. She was educated at the Goldsborough school, where she also served her pupil-teachership, and she was two years in charge of the Huiakama school, before she was appointed to Cardiff.

The Cardiff Co-Operative Dairy Factory Company, Limited . Head Office, Stratford. Directors for the year 1906: Mr. W. Richards (chairman), and Messrs G. A. Marchant, J. T. Belcher, H. McKean, J. McFadgen, A. J. Smith, P. Wellington, and G. Topp. Mr. A. C. Ross is manager, and Mr. T. H. Penn, secretary. The factory stands on a section of five acres of land. It is built of concrete, wood and iron, and there are cheese making, butter making, engine, and refrigerating, curing, packing, and store rooms, a cooling chamber and an office. The plant is driven by a seven-teen horse-power Murray boiler, and a nine horse-power Tangye engine. In the butter-making department a two ton Humble and Sons' refrigerator is used, as well as three 440 de Laval separators, two churns, two coolers, one 400-gallon cream vat, and one double cream elevator. The cheese-making department is fitted up with five 700-gallon vats, five presses, one curd mill, one de Laval pasteuriser, one Chambers' milk hoist, one alkaline testing outfit, and one Babcock tester. The output for the season 1905–6 consisted of 265 tons of cheese and two tons of butter. There are about thirty-seven suppliers. Five assistants are employed.

Mr. William Richards, Chairman of the Cardiff Co-operative Dairy Factory Company, Limited, has been resident in the district since 1881. He was born in the year 1850, in Staffordshire, England, where he was educated abd brought up as an iron-worker. Mr. Richards came to New Zealand in January, 1880, and landed in Wellington. He joined the Armed Constabulary, and was employed in the construction of the old track round Mount Egmont. Mr. Richards took up 100 acres of land in the Cardiff district, which was then covered with bush, and in 1901, added 257 acres. The property has since been fully cleared and highly improved. Mr. Richards is one of the founders, and an original director, and has been chairman of the local dairy factory since 1901; and he has been a member of the Cardiff school committee, and its chairman for about three years. In 1878 he married a daughter of Mr. Thomas Sutton, of Lutterworth, England, and has three sons and one daughter.

Mr. Alexander Charles Ross was appointed Manager of the Cardiff Factory in the year 1901. He was born in 1876, at Waimea, Southland, where he was educated, and spent a number of years in connection with the rearing and management of cattle and sheep. He was afterwards employed at the Toitoi Dairy Factory, Fortrose, for one year, and was then appointed manager of the Tokonui Dairy Factory, and during four years of his management was successful in gaining one first, four seconds, and one third prize for cheese at the Otago and Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Society's shows. Mr. Ross subsequently removed to Taranaki. Since the year 1901 he has succeeded in gaining a first and four second prizes page 185 for butter at the Palmerston North, Hawera, New Plymouth, and Dunedin shows, and three first prizes for cheese at Hawera and New Plymouth. In 1905 Mr. Ross married a daughter of the late Mr. R. A. Brown, of Cromwell, Otago.

McAllister, photo.Mr. A. C. Ross.

McAllister, photo.
Mr. A. C. Ross.