Newspaper Supplement 1976 – Whakatu Works Feature
The Daily Telegraph
THE HAWKE’S BAY FARMERS MEAT CO., LTD.
Friday, January 30, 1976
WHAKATU WORKS FEATURE
$11m complex meeting future needs
The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co Ltd has placed Whakatu more conspicuously on the map, thanks to a multi-million-dollar building an [and] a mammoth spread of concrete.
The project is a complex comprising freezer and storage capacity to accommodate the company’s ever-increasing lamb and mutton tally. Buildings and plant are ready for use.
The complex was opened today by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr MacIntyre.
The entire concept conforms to the standards of hygiene and efficiency required by the frozen meat industry at international level. This has involved the company in the expenditure of $10,750,000.
Milestone
The construction of the freezing and storage complex has meant building 10 new blast freeze rooms and three freezer stores, each more than 900,000 cubic feet in content.
The project is the most momentous milestone in the company’s 63-year-old history.
“It is not intended that the completion of the new complex will increase the daily kill,” said the general manager, Mr I. D. Cameron.
The company is currently awaiting a decision from the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries on an application to establish a new works at Takapau.
“Any increase that will take place will come at the new works,” said Mr Cameron.
The company was formed in 1912 with an initial capital of $50,300 and the works cost $60,300. Today the capital is $5 million and the assets exceed $22 million.
In its opening season, 1914-1915, the works killed 123,900 sheep and lambs and 3190 head of cattle. It took 45 years for the first million sheep and lambs to be killed in a season and the tally was 1,056,668 in 1958-1959.
However, it took only a further 11 years to double this figure, and in 1969-1970 a record 2,147,527 sheep and lambs were killed.
Started in the uneasy economic climate of the years preceding the 1914-1918 World War, the company was established to operate as a meat processing works and to provide these facilities for the farmers of Hawke’s Bay.
The company has always endeavoured to fill this role by keeping its plant and equipment to the standards needed to satisfy its overseas clients and veterinary authorities. The completion of the latest project is a further stage in the implementation of this policy.
Replacements
Early in 1972 the company was faced with a need to replace some aged blast freezers and cold stores. This was influenced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries requirements to meet demands being made by the EEC countries. This included the fact that wood must, before long, be completely removed from refrigerated areas.
In the light of the difficulties of rebuilding existing sections of the works while production still continued the company made a bold decision.
This was to build a bridge over the road and the main Wellington-Gisborne rail-way and build new facilities on a property already owned by the company.
Throughout 1972 planning for the project continued and the financial arrangements were concluded.
Work started in November and to clear the site a double-storeyed house was moved. Then followed the removal of 16,000 yards of topsoil and backfilling with thousands of yards of compacted river shingle.
Mr Cameron said that a tribute is due to the main contractor, J. C. Mackersey Ltd, Hastings, who has completed this tremendous programme in a little under three years.
Major items in the new complex include:
– Marshalling floor for carcase mutton and lamb, fully air conditioned and capable of holding 8000 lambs.
– Ten blast freeze rooms each capable of freezing 2000 lambs in 14 hours.
– Three freezer stores each nearly 1 million cubic feet.
– Passageways for conveyers, staff and fork lift movement.
– A completely enclosed loading out platform and railway siding capable of holding 14 insulated railway wagons or 24 shipping containers.
– An electrical switch-room and refrigeration plant room.
– Staff amenities and office block.
Photo caption – The new multi-million-dollar freezer and storage complex (arrowed) covering some 2.4 hectares (six acres) greatly expands the area covered by The Hawke’s Bay Farmers Meat Co. Ltd at Whakatu. This aerial picture of the complex from left to right shows the connecting passage from the main works, the marshalling and cooling floors with staff amenities and offices above, 10 blast freeze rooms and three freezer stores, each more than 900,000 cubic feet.
Photo caption – MR I. D. CAMERON
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Page 2
Hygiene, care in handling of perishable foodstuffs
With its covered area of 5.684 acres the new Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co. complex houses a number of innovations to meet the stringent requirements laid down by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Today’s emphasis placed upon hygiene and care in the handling of perishable foodstuffs such as those produced in a major freezing works makes the standards acceptable in a bygone age seem elementary and crude by comparison.
Even a casual glance at the interior of the company’s old wooden constructed freezer, it would seem, leads one to conclude the existing plant has done well indeed to keep pace with the progress made in servicing the province’s fat sheep and export lamb industry and in the preparation of beef cattle exports.
The Whakatu works leads the way in throughput figures, for in the last export season, for example, the sheep and lamb kill totalled 2,076,243 and the cattle kill 68,133 head. In the season before last the figures were not far behind – sheep and lambs 1,991,359 carcases, beef 61,626 bodies.
LOGICAL MOVE
The company directors were ever mindful of the need for change in updating the plant and facilities, so that in 1972 when the move was made, the decision to build a comprehensive freezer complex to replace the freezers and stores centrally situated in the works seemed logical.
The decision to rebuild was in line with the industry’s search for new and more hygienic ways to handle frozen meat in carcase and carton form.
The complex is virtually an oversize “fridg”. It is described as a forklift pallet store.
But what intrigues the visitor is the conveyor system that brings the carcases from the killing floors through the overhead tunnel above the roadway and railway lines into the complex.
There seem to be miles of this smooth working conveyor system, which grades and segregates the lambs.
BLAST FREEZERS
The store is arranged for loading in at one end and loading out at the other. Graded and segregated correctly, the carcases travel in an air conditioned temperature safely sustainable for 25 hours. They are admitted to the blast freezers of the degambrelling area, where they are placed in steel pallets. Forklifts take the pallets, full, into the store.
Forklifts take the pellets [pallets] to the loading – out platform. The carcases are packed into the containers on special railwagons. These are moved by a company tractor, fitted with a catalytic – type exhaust to prevent the contamination of the load-out area.
Photo caption – Linking the new complex with the main works is the raised connecting passage or “life-line”, as one works employee termed it. From the killing floor the carcases are funnelled on to two conveyor rails inside the air-conditioned passage and travel about 1.6km (one mile) to the marshalling floor.
Page 3
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The H.B. Farmers’ Meat Co. premises at Whakatu with the inset showing the new freezing complex.
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Page 4
Model design
The economy of New Zealand still depends on the export earnings of agriculture. Exports from other sectors can only supplement agriculture, although the increasing contribution of manufacturing, forestry, and tourism ensures a healthier total national economy, says the Minister of Agriculture, Mr MacIntyre, in a special message on the opening of the new Whakatu complex.
Even last season, 1974-1975, in spite of a sharp decline in both meat and wool prices, agricultural exports earned 78 per cent of our overseas exchange – $1291 million out of a total $1658 million.
For the previous four seasons the figure averaged just over 85 per cent.
We start to get things in their proper perspective when we look at the figures in detail – agricultural exports $1291 million; timber, wood products, pulp and paper $146 million; manufactured goods $180 million.
Without wishing to minimise the very important part other industries play, and acknowledging that a broadened secondary industrial base is essential, it is a most salutary experience to ponder the utter dependence of New Zealand on its agricultural industry.
In spite of challenging developments in other sectors, agriculture continues to maintain its overwhelming predominance. Moreover, much of the secondary industrial development depends, and will continue to depend, for its establishment and continued growth on the earnings of agriculture.
Meat processing, including freezing, is our largest manufacturing industry and extends deeply into the realm of distribution. Yet it is often regarded purely as a farming industry.
Another distinction which is often overlooked is that agriculture in New Zealand has always been export orientated. In contrast, many other sectors produce for the local market and export only whatever product can be placed on markets developed aboard.
The sheer weight of the agricultural contribution justifies the need for a continued rate of expansion, and the Government is giving priority, within the framework of the national economy, to policies designed to stimulate investment in farming and to encourage expansion.
New Zealand has a reputation for producing high quality products to meet international standards. Our primary products compete successfully on world markets because they offer quality at competitive prices.
But we are not the only primary producers who are meeting these quality standards, and we must do everything possible to stay ahead.
The cost of maintaining our position is enormous, as the new freezer and storage complex of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co. illustrates. But it is a cost that has to be met if we are to ensure the entry of our meat products, not only to the established and traditional markets, but also to the many new ones that are opening up.
I extend my warmest congratulations to the directors of the company for their foresight and their business acumen in going ahead with this new complex.
It can be considered a model design for the meat processing industry in New Zealand and places Whakatu in the forefront of North Island freezing works.
Photo caption – Mr MacIntyre… who today opened the new complex at Whakatu.
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Page 5
HOW WHAKATU COPED DURING SLUMP YEARS
No record of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co. would be complete without reference to the fate of Whakatu in the slump years.
The cost factor loomed large during this period. The cost of killing and freezing a carcase rose from 28.27d in 1935-36 to 39.91d in 1937-38. This represented a total increase of 22,000 pounds in two years.
By the outbreak of the Second World War the company was able to cope, thanks largely to the extra storage that had been provided. The entry into the chilled beef trade was a forward step.
KILL DOUBLED
In 10 years the sheep kill had been almost doubled. There were losses during the depression years, but the company was strong enough to withstand losses over a succession of seasons.
Hawke’s Bay historian T. K. Fallwell records the company was able to declare a dividend each year, to place appreciable sums to reserves and, with one exception, to continue the payment of rebates.
Fallwell’s history of the frozen meat industry in Hawke’s Bay deals only with the early period, ending with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. But his summary, as well as being authoritative, seems to set the pattern for the company’s development up to the present. He comments a significant reason for the company’s promotion was the farmers’ desire to have the opportunity of killing and shipping on consignment.
“By becoming an exporter himself,” Fallwell says, “the farmer hoped to eliminate the profits of the middle man – whom he felt was exploiting him – and to obtain what he believed to be the true value of his stock. The directors have recognised this need right from the inception of the company; indeed, they have encouraged this practice, for it fitted in neatly with the company’s non-buying policy.
“It has been important,” Fallwell adds, “that the farmer should have the opportunity of consigning his own stock, for it has enabled him to test the London market for himself. Moreover, while this avenue remains open to the farmer, there is little chance of meat exporters establishing a ‘price ring’.”
SOLID MEN
Fallwell strikes the right note when he mentions that the company’s success was in some measure due to sound management and efficient service. With three exceptions, Cranby, Stratton and Ebbett, the company’s directors until 1939, he says, were practical farmers “solid men with an abundance of common sense, and keenly aware of both the producers’ and the company’s needs”.
It took the company a quarter of a century to compete on equal terms with its rivals. At the end of that period the company was handling at least one-third of the province’s exportable fat stock.
Fallwell’s final comment is that the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co, to a large extent, preserved its original character. It had managed without the importation of “outside” capital which alone had saved a number of farmer-owned co-operatives.
The company had played an important role in the development of the province’s farming industry since 1912. Its success and its influence had more than justified the labours of its founders, for even the most optimistic of its promoters could scarcely have visualised that in time it would become “one of the soundest and best administered concerns of its class in the Dominion”.
In 1975 there would be general endorsement of this comment. Details of the company’s landmarks in progress are printed under a separate heading. The increase in the kill is the most eloquent testimonial of all. In the record season 1969-70, for instance, the sheep kill totalled 2,147,672. Two seasons later the company had a record cattle kill of 81,651 head.
KILLING METHODS
The original method of killing at Whakatu was under the old system of solo butchering, but progress demanded change as the years passed. The next significant change in killing methods came in 1964 when the works discontinued the old bed dressing system for cattle and changed to the present rail system.
At this time beef was exported in quarters and the company began a gradual conversion to boning and primal cutting, the method now in use.
To cater for all this activity the company built a new beef boning building and plant in 1969, the first of its kind in New Zealand for this particular purpose. It also started a rebuilding programme of freezer stores which featured high-level stores and pallet handling.
This was the forerunner of the present project which has more than doubled the available amount of space and involved the use of steel-framed self-supporting pallets.
Page 6
PROVISIONAL DIRECTORS’ EARLY TRIALS
The first definite step towards the establishment of a farmers’ freezing works in Hawke’s Bay was a meeting called by Central Hawke’s Bay personality, Mr J. D. Canning, on July 2, 1912, in the social hall of the Waipukurau Public Library.
The attendance included 50 interested farmers. A committee was appointed to gather information. Mr G. E. Merriken addressed the meeting.
This committee appears to have been a very active one. It met frequently, and among major decisions was, on the motion of Mr Canning and Mr J. D. Todd, that “the proposed company be a non-buying concern.” This was subsequently incorporated in the company’s articles of association.
The account by the Hawke’s Bay historian, T. K. Fallwell, of the step-by-tep [step] development of the proposed company can not be traced in detail here. There were moves to “marry” into established meat companies, for the promoters’ greatest need was capital.
Negotiations with the Wellington Meat Company (owners of the Waingawa works, near Masterton) broke down. Fallwell comments that this was a blessing in disguise.
We next read of the appointment of provisional directors in September 1912.
They were J. D. Canning, T. E. Whelch [Welch], A. C. Prentice, J. O’Neill, J. C. Parker, J. D. Todd and G. E Merriken.
SUPPORT SOUGHT
Meantime, of course, there had been much canvassing for financial support. One who refused financial support but offered 200 acres as a site for the freezing works, was S. Johnstone, of “Oruawharo”, Takapau.
One who succeeded as a canvasser was M. J. Corrigan, “an Irishman of genial manner and rich brogue who had kissed the Blarney Stone seven times over”.
According to Fallwell, the support promised in the Hatuma and Otane districts was considerable. One mentions the point because in these districts there was strong pressure to have the proposed works sited at Waipukurau, or at least in the district.
The provisional directors decided to enlist the support of the wealthier landowners. People like J. B. A’Deane, Ashcott, were quite definite in their refusal. Mr A’Deane intimated he had no faith in the success of another works in the province, for Nelsons were established and flourishing.
The provisional directors had been busy with the selection and purchase of a property suitable for the works. A site at Whakatu of seven acres and an adjoining paddock of 6¾ acres, known as Tuckers, were eventually purchased.
The time came for the statutory meeting to appoint directors, all other formalities having been attended to. The articles made provision for nine directors. There were eight nominations, Messrs Canning, Whelch [Welch], Parker, Todd, J. A. Macfarlane, W. J. Stratton, H. H. Glazebrook and G. H. Cranby. M. J. O’Neil [O’Neill] was subsequently appointed to fill the ninth position.
Stratton was a Napier accountant with an alert and practical mind. He had been closely in touch with the farming community. Cranby was a genial man with a pleasant personality, prominent in local body affairs and the proprietor of the well known merchants and commission agents, Cranby and Co., Napier. Glazebrook and Macfarlane were comparatively large landowners, being fatteners of large numbers of sheep and cattle.
BOARD BALANCE
These four men, according to Fallwell, “with their specialised knowledge in business and finance”, made the board more evenly balanced.
Tendering for the erection of the works and plant proceeded apace and the successful establishment of the company became a reality.
But there were rocks ahead for the directors. The trouble was that they had raised the initial capital by signing up shareholders on the memorandum of association.
While this method of floating the company had its advantages, it also had serious disadvantages until the memorandum was registered. It meant that any of the signatories could legally repudiate all responsibility merely by notifying the company in writing. Some did.
So, while the directors had been trying to get the company operating concurrently with the disabilities imposed by the First World War, secession was in the making.
As Fallwell says, the movement began quietly and modestly enough but gathered speed until it threatened the very existence of the project, and finally culminated in the institution of legal proceedings against the company.
Page 7
Four managers, four chairmen in 63 years
The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co has been well served administratively. A succession of four general managers and four chairmen of directors has aided constancy of purpose and policy throughout the company’s 63-year history.
Its four general managers all graduated the hard way and none of them were strangers to the frozen meat industry on their appointment to the general managership at Whakatu.
The first general manager, Mr F. S. Candy, received his early training with the Canterbury Meat Co. The story has it that at the time the directors became interested in a man in the South Island who had nine or 10 sons. The man was a great cricketing enthusiast and with his 10 sons was able to, and did, field a cricket side.
SERVED ABLY
The Whakatu directors were not particularly keen to import a cricket side, so they chose Mr F. S. Candy who had been the first general manager of the Pareora freezing works, Timaru. He was appointed manager at Whakatu, holding the post till 1938.
This was the year Mr H. Brenton-Rule was appointed general manager. He had been well briefed for the post as an executive at the Gear Meat Co, Wellington, where he also held an important private secretaryship.
Mr Brenton-Rule served the company ably through a difficult wartime period, with resultant heavy pressures on the staff. Mr Brenton-Rule was succeeded in 1944 by Mr D. R. Little, who began his career with the company as office boy.
Mr Little left behind him a record of loyal and discreet service when he gave up the post in 1973 to live in retirement in Hastings. He was succeeded by the present general manager, Mr I. D. Cameron, a member of a well known Hastings family.
The second chairman of directors was Mr R. S. Chadwick, who joined the company as a director in 1915. He acted as chairman while the then chairman, Mr Stratton, a Napier accountant, was in England. Mr Chadwick was appointed chairman in 1921 when Mr Stratton resigned. He remained chairman until 1956. Mr Chadwick had a distinguished record in local body activity in the Dannevirke district. He was among the most knowledgeable of those who had made a study of the frozen meat trade.
A Yorkshireman, he settled with a brother and his parents in 1895, knocking down bush at Whetakura to clear land for farming. He took the property over in 1903. He was a staunch supporter of the old Farmers’ Union Movement. It is recorded of him that he was disheartened by the general apathy shown by sheepfarmers towards presenting a united front. In fact, it was their lethargy which prompted his association with the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co., for in the company he saw the realisation of his ideal of a group of farmers co-operating in a given enterprise.
QUIET STRENGTH
Mr Chadwick was active in the administration of the Mortgagor Relief Act of the period. He rose to Appeal Court status, being appointed to assist the late Sir Harold Johnstone.
Mr Chadwick was succeeded by the late Mr R. H. Whyte, a man of quiet strength and high principled dealing. Mr White [Whyte] served until 1960.
As well as being a sound farmer in the Patangata district, Mr White had enjoyed a conspicuous local body career. He was kindly remembered, too, for his sympathetic handling of his duties as a chairman of one of the Hawke’s Bay commissions hearing applications under the Mortgagor Relief Act brought in by the Government of the day in the depths of the slump. Mr White was chairman of directors of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Co-operative Association for many years. The present chairman of directors, is Mr T. S. Ellingham, a member of a pioneering family, the branches of which are scattered over a wide area in Hawke’s Bay.
A man of wide farming and business experience, Mr Ellingham has been associated with the board of directors for the past 20 or so years. He is chairman of directors of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers Co-operative Association Ltd.
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Page 8
WAR PUT COMPANY ON FEET
A well-known Hawke’s Bay landowner is alleged to have once said that any one of the shareholders, early in the life of the Whakatu freezing works, could be bought out with a pint of beer.
The remark was indicative of the early contempt in which the “Establishment” held the small farmers who had subscribed the lion’s share of the foundation capital for the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co’s project.
But it didn’t stop there, for there was a concerted effort to crush the company out of existence before it got started. Hawke’s Bay historian T. K. Fallwell, writing of the year 1913, the most critical year in the company’s existence, says: “There is little doubt that if the discontented elements had had their way the company would have collapsed.”
PAINFUL TIMES
It was a painful episode, maybe best forgotten, best not dwelt upon. Fallwell goes on to detail the company’s operations during the war period, 1914-18, the days of the “commandeer”.
He contends the war put the company on its feet – it had $40,000 equivalent invested in Government inscribed stock and a further $30,000 on fixed deposit in the bank. By 1920 the kill had risen to 216,694 sheep and lambs.
The war gave the works the opportunity to prove itself to the province. Additional killing and storage space became available when it was vitally needed.
The company’s directors possibly did not welcome the lifting of the comandeer [commandeer] in 1920, but as Fallwell says, they “could at least face the resumption of normal trading with confidence – the company’s reputation was high.”
The next 10 years was a period of steady progress. The works were enlarged. The kill was increased. Substantial reserves began to accumulate, but progress in this period, of course, was bugged by disquieting industrial trouble, particularly antagonism over the employment of non-union labour.
Post-war depression created problems, too. There were attempts to prune out uneconomic freezing works. The word “merger” became both a popular and a dirty word.
The Hawke’s Bay farmers had the consolation of knowing that at least they owned their own freezing works, which is what the argument was all about. A giant take-over with producer control had been visualised. Neither the Meat Board nor the Government were enthusiastic about it.
Next crisis in the company’s affairs was caused by the earthquake and a controversy of a deep-seated nature, the point being that the quake had completely destroyed Bothwicks’ works at Paki Paki and brought gains to Whakatu which quite outweighed the company’s losses in the quake. The gains arose from the negotiations that Borthwicks entered with the company for killing space at Whakatu in lieu of rebuilding the Pakipaki works [Paki Paki].
Among the repercussions caused by the earthquake were moves to bring about certain desirable economies. Take-over proposals – they failed – offended the Wairoa people and there came about what could be regarded as heresy – a proposal for the amalgamation of Tomoana and Whakatu. Other takeover proposals were mooted.
Fallwell says the Whakatu directors found themselves in hot water. There were stormy meetings. The main point at issue involved fierce criticism of individual directors at the board table and in the correspondence columns of the Press.
A period was entered of long dispute about the company’s administration. It was even considered necessary to appoint a sub-committee of the board to act with what amounted to power to examine the whole well-being of the company.
It would seem at this stage unimportant, but in the 1930s such a statement would be challenged. Men like G. A. Maddison, G. J. Parker and J. D. Tod, holding to one line of thought were opposed by the grand old stalwartS, R. S. Chadwick, Edward Averill and George Ebbett. There were many personal exchanges, but at this distance it would seem the real trouble was lack of communication between the directors and the shareholders.
But the passage of time clearly shows the motivating thought behind the dissension was the welfare of the company.
Photo caption –
THREE AUTOMATIC BOOSTER PUMPS have been installed in the new complex to help supplement the main engine room across the road in the main works in the operation of the refrigeration cycle. These pumps are controlled from the main engine room.
Page 9
MORE SHEEP AT ONE TIME THAN PEOPLE
For the first 40 years of European settlement, New Zealand’s sheep were grown only for their wool. Flocks multiplied rapidly until by 1871 the sheep population had risen TO nearly 1 million (the people population to only a quarter of a million).
By 1880, however, experiments had begun with refrigeration and William Davidson, the manager of the New Zealand and Australia Land Company, persuaded his company to make a trial shipment of meat from New Zealand to Britain. The ship, Dunedin, sailed from Port Chalmers on February 11, 1882, with 4908 frozen sheep and lamb carcases aboard.
DOUBLE VALUE
Those first carcases, of which only one was rejected on arrival, sold within a fortnight for $8000, double their value on the New Zealand market, paving the way for the rapid growth of a New Zealand freezing industry.
The importance in value of the industry to the economy is illustrated by the fact that in the 1974 season New Zealand’s meat industry exported:- Lamb, 579,906 tonnes; mutton 110,817 tonnes; beef and veal, 167,528 tonnes.
As a further illustration, it was responsible for the export of hides, skins and meat by-products in the 11 months ended May 30, 1975 (provisional): Sausage casings, 5,700,163 hanks; cattle and calf skins, 2,488,938; sheep and lamb skins, 27,681, 210; inedible tallow, 57,808 tonnes.
These exports go to 90 countries from American Samoa to Austria, from Canada to Chile, from Malaysia to Muscat, from Panama to Portugal, and from Yugoslavia to Zambia.
LANDSCAPING A MAJOR TASK
For the last decade industrial concerns have become aware of the need to erect new buildings with some emphasis on landscaping – the Hawke’s Bay Farmers Meat Co Ltd is no exception.
When plans were completed for the company’s new freezer and storage complex, landscaping the site was already being considered.
A lot of money has since been used to beautify the site with the use of free-flow gardens, lawn areas and the planting of trees.
This work was undertaken by company staff in conjunction with a Hastings horticulturist, Mr Don Escort.
Included in the development of the site has been an extension of parking areas for works employees. Space has been provided for an extra 120 car park sites.
To keep an open area between the new building and the company’s office block, management decided at the beginning of development to leave the tennis courts and bowling green behind the offices untouched.
There had been some suggestion at first to include this area within the building site.
Photo caption – FIRST STOP for sheep carcases after the killing floor is in the new complex’s fully air-conditioned marshalling floor. Here they are sorted out into their respective grades in readiness to be frozen in the blast freezers. The marshalling area is capable of holding 8000 carcases and holding them in good condition overnight if needed.
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Page 10
Challenge for the contractor
Building the multi-million-dollar Whakatu freezer and storage complex was a challenge for the principal contractor, J. C. Mackersey Ltd, of Hastings – it was their biggest contract to date and the building programme was planned for speed.
With the completion of the third and final store this month, the success of the firm’s work is evident – the main sections completed well within the final contract completion dates.
Apart from the refrigeration work which was done by Ellis Hardy Symington Ltd, Wellington, and the meat rails (a sub-contractor was employed by the owners), the complex, including the railway siding, has been Mackersey’s “baby”.
When the firm arrived early in 1973 the site had already been cleared, top soil removed and backfilled with river metal.
The project manager, Mr A. M. Hartley, said work on the first freezer store began almost immediately with foundation work beginning on February 19, 1973.
During the three years of construction work, the firm had some 60 men at work on the site – this number swelling at times to well over 100 when the 30-odd sub-contractors were in operation.
LOCAL LABOUR
Mr Hartley said the policy was to use local labour and facilities wherever possible. Most of the sub-contractors were local firms and all material, including the concrete and steel-work, was bought within the Hawke’s Bay district.
The sheer size of the complex meant a quick and easy method of construction was of paramount importance if the job was to be done on time.
Once the concrete floor slabs were down and the steel framing in place, precut wall panels were installed and the roof added.
INSULATION NEEDS
Insulating the stores required combining a number of latest building techniques.
“Sandwich-type” floors were laid for each store. Between the first or “sub-floor”, which contains heating cables, and the next layer of concrete are several applications of vapour insulation mixture and also cork insulation.
The insulated ceiling was constructed from sandwich panels with a polystyrene core. The platforms at each end of the stores are completely enclosed with a 14-foot-high insulated ceiling and walls built from insulated panels.
These areas are regarded as having an environment suitable for the passage of carcases or cartons without causing a significant rise in their temperature.
To co-ordinate the work the contract required a close liaison between owners, contractor, sub-contractor, consulting engineers, quantity surveyors and management representatives.
This was achieved to a large degree by regular meetings between those involved. Every second Thursday throughout the three years a site meeting was held to discuss progress and other points of work.
Mr Hartley said the successful building programme was the result of team work, both among his own staff and others on the site.
Photo caption – Mr A. M. Hartley …Project manager for the principal contractor. J. C. Mackersey Ltd.
WHAKATU LANDMARKS
Production landmarks in the history of the Whakatu freezing works include a series of record throughputs in both sheep and cattle.
In outline the landmarks from the 1914-1915 opening season are stark. The record is as follows:-
Season Sheep, Lambs Beef Cattle
1914-1915 123,900 3,190
1927-1928 509,924 11,038
1939-1940 807,695 25,345
1958-1959 1,056,668 44,305
1966-1967 1,581,203 51,450
Record Day’s Kill: Sheep and lambs, 20,197 (December 22, 1970); cattle, 782 (February 14, 1973).
Record Week: Sheep and lambs, 102,837 (December 13, 1975); cattle, 3914 (March 3, 1974).
Record Season: Sheep and lambs, 2,147,572 (1969-1970); cattle, 81,651 (1972-1973).
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Page 11
Former stalwarts
Co-operative affair
Planning for the multi-million-dollar complex at the Whakatu freezing works began five years ago when a proposal to extend the capacity of freezer storage was first decided.
The company’s chief engineer, Mr A. H. Waterhouse, said many plans were submitted from the firm’s own drawing room until the present plan was accepted in 1972.
Because of the nature of the building planning was a co-operative affair between the company staff and the refrigeration contractors.
Once building approval had been given by the Hawke’s Bay County Council approvals were sought from the New Zealand Railways and council to erect the connecting bridge across the Wellington-Napier main trunk line.
Approval also had to be sought to bring a main power cable underneath the railway lines from the main works. This work was done by New Zealand Electricity Department staff.
(See story page 7).
Photo captions –
– Mr R. S. Chadwick, second chairman of directors.
– Mr R. H. White, served the company until 1960.
– Mr H. Brenton-Rule, company manager in First War years.
– Mr A. H. Waterhouse, chief engineer to the company.
– Mr W. J. Stratton, resigned as chairman in 1921.
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Page 12
Truly a farmer concern
In its origin the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co Ltd was a genuine farmers’ concern – to all intents and purposes wholly a farmers’ concern.
Of those who signed the memorandum of association and supplied the initial share capital only four were non-farmers.
In February 1914, when the first call on shares was made, the subscribed share capital stood at the equivalent of $80,550. The shareholders totalled 327.
T. K. Fallwell, who wrote a thesis for his MA degree at the Napier Boys’ High School is the authority for this article. In his thesis, he makes the point that the shareholding was mostly in the hands of working farmers, or “cockies” as they were called.
“While there was a sprinkling of big sheep farmers among the company’s original shareholders, their numbers were relatively insignificant and their share of the capital even more so,” Mr Fallwell Writes.
APATHETIC
“Generally speaking, these farmers either remained apathetic or treated the project with disdain. Their attitude sprang directly from the favourable circumstances of their social background.”
The outstanding exception, according to Mr Fallwell, was the late Mr J. Davis Canning, the son of the pioneer owner of the famous “Oakbourne” Station in Central Hawke’s Bay.
“Canning championed the cause of the small farmers. He was criticised for his association with the movement and was warned that it would jeopardise his reputation,” Mr Fallwell wrote.
Mr Fallwell’s treatise could be described as a book of character studies, for it is clear that the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co is the product of a clash of personalities.
The author deals with the entire history of the frozen meat industry in Hawke’s Bay, mentioning, inter alia, a character who did much towards waking Hawke’s Bay up to the province’s potential, Mr G. E. Merriken, a farmer of Hatuma, “an Englishman with a univesity [university] education and a blasphemous tongue”. He had roughed it on estancios in the Argentine and sheep stations in Hawke’s Bay. We first hear of him urging a conference of Farmers’ Union supporters. His complaint was that the Canterbury farmers were getting two to three shillings a head more for their fat lambs than Hawke’s Bay were for theirs.”
COMMOTION
Merriken did not believe that freezing and shipping on owner’s account was a solution for the small farmer. His solution to the farmers’ problems was the establishment of a farmers’ co-operative freezing works.
The campaign instigated by Merriken raised a commotion for the Establishment took notice and tried hard but failed to subdue him.
Mr Fallwell covers it well in his remark that there was little doubt Merriken’s arguments and his championship of the small farmers’ cause convinced many of the desirability and need for a farmers’ freezing works in the province.
Merriken, then, sowed the seeds of an idea. There was general sympathy for it. The pot simmered for two years. All that was needed was leadership. That eventuated in 1912 at Waipukurau where the history of Whakatu and all it means today began.
Whakatu one of 39
The number of freezing works in New Zealand contributing to the export trade is 39, but there are 125 companies or individuals holding meat export licences, with 25 meat packing houses licensed to operate.
The 39 works are owned by 22 companies. These range in ownership from farmer co-operatives to companies owned by New Zealand shareholding and subsidiaries of overseas-owned interests. Of the 39 works, 28 are controlled by New Zealand shareholding and 11 by overseas interests. Seven companies publicly listed on the Stock Exchange operate freezing works, either directly or through subsidiaries.
Photo caption – Mr E. M. C. Sullivan…office manager at Whakatu.
Page 13
SKILL WITH KNIFE AND HAND
To be placed high in the accomplishments of the frozen meat trade are the skills of the knife hands and those who prepare meat for export in package form.
This is one of many impressions to be formed on a tour of inspection at the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co’s works at Whakatu.
The deft manner in which a side of beef, for instance, was boned out left the onlooker very impressed.
The knife was seen to make a stroke best described as a wriggle deep into the flesh, but the knife-thrust and turning of the blade, of course, merely followed the outline of the leg construction of the animal.
In less time than it takes to remove a splinter from one’s finger, one saw the leg joints begin to emerge and very soon indeed out came the bones and knuckled joints, the bones white and bare of flesh.
DARTING KNIFE
Or again, in fascination one watched the deribbing of a mature bullock. In and out, up and down the ribs darted the knife, steered dexterously. A slash or two several well directed cuts with the knife, and the knife-hand was holding in his hand the skeletoned side of the animal, the rib construction intact.
Like some part from an abandoned motor vehicle in a junk heap he dropped it on to a metal platform, where it clanged and bumped rather sharply against a worker doing another job. He picked it up and threw it on to a conveyor which took it to regions below, there to be ground into bone dust as an aid to good viticulture or horticulture in Hawke’s Bay.
“MR SLICK”
Yet another impression was the extreme cold in those blast freezing chambers. Fifteen degrees. It seemed just inordinately cold, reminding one of Dunedin at the height of the ice-skating season. The day was overcast, yet to emerge into the daylight gave the feeling of brilliant sunshine. “This product must be kept frozen” read the printing on the cartons. That seemed to be rubbing in the obvious.
The man on the bandsaw was worth watching. At one time butchers halved a sheep carcase with a cleaver, the carcase suspended vertically. A series of blows along the spinal cord severed the body neatly in two.
“Mr Slick” on the bandsaw made that look all old hat. With deceptive speed reminding one of a conjurer, he halved the carcase, quartered it, and jointing the quarters, his hands, one felt, much too close to that whirling saw blade.
The “bits” went on to the conveyer [conveyor], and women packed them into cartons, marked and labelled for such sources as DEVCO.
Here was to be seen the reality of the talk and what one read about the search for markets, the potential in the American market, why did not the Germans or the Swiss eat more lamb? The skills – and there were many in that chamber – suggested the buyers of the product would be well rewarded with the quality of the product and the workmanship. Both were excellent.
Photo caption – FROM THE MARSHALLING FLOOR in the new complex, conveyers carry the carcases to the 10 blast freezer rooms. Each of these rooms is capable of freezing 2000 carcases in 14 hours. From the blast freezers the frozen carcases are conveyed out to be loaded on to the steel post bins ready for storage.
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Page 14
THE HAWKE’S BAY FARMERS’ MEAT CO., LTD.
NEW $11m BUILDING COMPLEX OPENED TODAY!
The Company was established in 1912 to provide processing facilities for Hawke’s Bay stock.
This service has been developed over the past 61 years to meet the changing requirements of both the farmer producers and the markets of the world.
In continuation of this policy the Company embarked on this major project, opened today by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Honourable Duncan MacIntyre.
It is designed to efficiently process the stock raised on the fertile lands of Hawke’s Bay.
The completion of this project has involved a large number of people including staff, contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers. The company is grateful for all their efforts and co-operation over the past three years.
Photo caption – Pictured above is our complete Meat Processing Works at Whakatu…. covering an area of approximately 20 acres. This Works is one of the largest in New Zealand, with a season’s kill exceeding 2 million sheep and lambs and 80,000 cattle.
At the top left corner is shown the new complex.
At Right – A close-up of the new complex
The overhead structure is the access way from the killing floor to the marshalling area and remainder of the new complex.
THE HAWKE’S BAY FARMERS’ MEAT CO., LTD.
WHAKATU WORKS
[No Page 15]
Page 16
PORT LINKS WORLD’S MARKETS
The Port of Napier has played a significant role in handling the meat exports of the province during the last 100 years.
Before the breakwater harbour was established and refrigerated freighters were loaded in the roadstead from lighters, meat – beef, mutton and lamb – was one of the main items of trade handled by the port.
This trend has continued through the developing years, although it has been arrested to some degree with the establishment of containerisation.
Napier, however, is still one of the leading export ports of meat in New Zealand.
The main meat trade has been between the port and the United Kingdom, New Zealand’s biggest customer over the years.
The port has saved farmers an immeasurable amount of money in costs, mainly because of the short-haul railage.
The actual costs of handling meat at the port have traditionally been lower than any other New Zealand port, giving farmers a double saving.
The efficiency in the turnround of shipping and the lower costs, has also had the effect of drawing meat from outside Hawke’s Bay for export.
Stevedores, harbour board employees and watersiders have all played an important part in gaining the port a reputation for efficiency.
This has been emphasised by the fact that ships are often queued up waiting for berths.
MORE ECONOMIES
Napier also featured in the two-port loading system for United Kingdom meat, and latterly the single-port system, providing more economies for the farmer.
As far as the Hawke’s Bay Harbour Board has been concerned, the needs of the meat trade have been accorded the highest priority.
Today the port has a trade turnover exceeding one million tonnes a year and of this last year the total meat exports amounted to 101,594 tonnes, compared with 75,324 tonnes in 1974.
Last year 1978 tonnes of beef, 29,451 tonnes of cartoned meat 17,823 tonnes of mutton and 52,342 tonnes of lamb were shipped out of Napier.
MAJOR ROLE
Conference Lines refrigerated freighters have played the major role in taking the United Kingdom meat, but significant inroads have been made into this trade, as new markets have been developed, by the Dutch and the Japanese.
Photo caption – THIS IS A TYPICAL SCENE at the Port of Napier – refrigerated freighters loading meat for overseas consumption. The vessel loading at the far side, Kirkpatrick Wharf, is a reefer-type vessel, while the two ships in the centre are conventional freighters.
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Page 17
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Page 18
BOARD DOES NOT “FLY BLIND”
Members of the board of directors of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat co. are not just front men, and in that respect the company is well served.
One of them, unnamed by choice, puts it differently. “On the board”, he said, “we just don’t fly blind under the surveillance of the executives.
“The board meets once a month, and it’s not just a procedure of sitting all day round a table and being served with morning and afternoon tea,” he said.
The members kept abreast of all that went on at Whakatu and a close look indeed was invariably taken at all projects that involved financial outlay. Frequently there were gaps in the board room attendance, with individual members making a tour of inspection to report back.
The present chairman of the board, Mr T. S. Ellingham is a nephew of the late Mr R. S. Chadwick and the former board member, Mr J. W. Ellingham.
Mr Ellingham carries an honoured name in Hawke’s Bay, for he is of pioneering stock. His father was Mr T. W. Ellingham, of Whetakura, where Mr Searle Ellingham was born.
He attended the old Heretaunga School and is an old boy of Wanganui Collegiate School. As a schoolboy he was a steward of the Dannevirke A and P Society and in later life he joined the society’s general committee. He was an original member of the now defunct Southern Hawke’s Bay Rabbit Board.
SPORTS INTERESTS
Mr Ellingham was vice-captain for rowing and football at secondary school, and he played representative football for Southern Hawke’s Bay. He was made a JP in 1952.
As well as holding the chairmanship at Whakatu, Mr Ellingham is chairman of directors for the Hawke’s Bay Farmers Co-operative Association Ltd. As chairman of the Associated Farmers Co-ops, Mr Ellingham visited Britain last year. He is a director of Baillie Farmers Motors Ltd.
There have been only three representatives of the Poukawa Riding in the history of the Hawke’s Bay County Council, and all three have filled the council’s chairmanship. They are Messrs H. M. Campbell, Robert Harding and M. G. Groome, the present chairman.
Mr Groome joined the board of directors at Whakatu in 1959. He is a third generation member of one of Hawke’s Bay’s best known families of the Onepu district, his grandfather having taken up the property in the late 1870s.
SHOW SUPPORTED
An old boy of Wanganui Collegiate School, Mr Groome served 17 years on the general committee of the Hawke’s Bay A and P Society and he was an active supporter of the Federated Farmers movement. He has represented the Poukawa Riding since 1956. Mr Groome is a JP.
As do his colleagues on the board, Mr Groome leads an active life, largely owing to the demands made upon him by the county council. Allied with his duties as chairman Mr Groome represents Hawke’s Bay on the Counties Association Insurance Co.
A past president of the Waipukurau Jockey Club for 17 years, Mr H. W. Smith, Omakere, joined the board in 1946.
Mr Smith is a member of a well known Wellington family, the owners of James Smith and Co, the large departmental store in Lower Cuba Street, Wellington. He was educated at Scots College. He and an elder brother went farming, two of his brothers, as third generation directors, staying on with the firm.
Mr Smith arrived in Central Hawke’s Bay in 1933, taking over from the late Mr Lachlan McKenzie the historic Te Manuiri property, one of the outstations of the original Pourerere Station.
Mr Smith served two terms as a member of the Central Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board. He is an enthusiastic dog trialist. He is president of the dog trial club. He owns a dog and still takes part at the smaller meetings.
BEEF ENTHUSIAST
After leaving Christ’s College, Mr S. T. Belcher was initiated into sheep-farming by cadeting on his father’s extensive holdings in Canterbury. He came to Hawke’s Bay as a stock agent and after three years went to Marlborough, where he was appointed a stock auctioneer, stationed on Kaikoura. He returned to Hawke’s Bay and took up the property at Waimarama, which he has farmed on his own account for the past 43 years.
For 10 years Mr Belcher served on the Electoral College of the Meat and Wool Boards and in 1960 he was elected to the board of directors at Whakatu.
At all times an enthusiast for beef cattle, Mr Belcher was among those associated in the first export of chiller beef from Hawke’s Bay by arrangement with Thos Borthwick and Son. That was in 1934. He was also one of the first producers in Hawke’s Bay to use the carton method in the export of beef.
A breeder of purebred Angus cattle for many years, Mr Belcher has regularly supported both the Central Hawke’s Bay and the Hawke’s Bay chiller beef championship as an exhibitor and donor of cash prizes. He has won the competition himself on occasions.
Sharing the board-room
(Continued on Page 19)
Photo captions –
– MR T. S. ELLINGHAM
– MR M. G. GROOME
– MR H. W. SMITH
– MR T. S. BELCHER
– MR I.A. BARNETT
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Page 19
(continued from Page 18)
table with Mr Belcher is a very popular rival breeder of stud beef cattle. Mr I. A. Barnett, of Oringi, Dannevirke. Mr Barnett, as a stud herd owner, is an executive member and on the council of the New Zealand Hereford Breeders’ Association. He takes a keen interest in Royal Agricultural Society affairs. He has exhibited at various A and P shows successfully as a breeder of Hereford cattle, and is a past president of the Dannevirke A and P Society.
For several periods Mr Barnett served as a Dannevirke county councillor.
Mr Barnett is well known as a sportsman. He has played tennis and golf with distinction all his life. He still plays tennis and his present golf handicap is eight. He has figured in representative tennis, also in Hawke cup cricket. In his youth he also played Rugby.
GRASSLAND RESEARCH
Mr J. A. H. Inglis is a young man perhaps best known for his expert knowledge in grassland management. Having made a hobby of it as a private study, he has put that research knowledge to effective commercial use in the administration of a 540-acre sheep farm lying under the famous Wharite Peak, in the lower Ruahine Ranges on the north side of the Manawatu Gorge.
By no means easy country to farm, the property earned distinction, among several reasons, for the unique brother and sister relationship at its helm.
Miss Helen Inglis, now Mrs R. A. Soundy, of Kaeo, North Auckland, took her full share of the shepherding and other manual work on the farm, sharing her brother’s enthusiasm and contributing much with her own special knowledge, in flock and pasture management.
Mr Inglis was educated at the Wanganui Collegiate School. In 1974 he led a party of 11 New Zealanders to the 12th International Grassland conference in Moscow, as well as on a tour of central Asian and European countries.
He is a past chairman of the Manawatu Agriculture Club. He has been an active Federated Farmers supporter and treasurer of the National Party organisation in the Pahiatua electorate.
Mr Inglis is one of 100 people able to write the letters ACIS after his name, as a chartered administrator (Institute of Chartered Secretaries).
Mr Inglis has been a member of the Whakatu board of directors since 1965. He is a Justice of the Peace.
FARMING LIFE
A man with a lifetime farming background, Mr L. E. Hardy needs no introduction to the farming community in Hawke’s Bay. He has been a member of the board since 1962.
Born at Tikokino, he farmed at Elsthorpe on his own account until some 12 years ago, when he moved to the Takapau district, where his farm runs both sheep and cattle.
Mr Hardy, as he puts it, “did his turn” as an active supporter of Federated Farmers at branch level, and also took an active interest in school committee affairs. His association with the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co, though he does not say so, is an abiding and absorbing interest.
WASTE INTO FARM
Mr W. D. Mouat, well known for his association with Mangaorapa Station, near Porangahau, came on to the board in 1970. Mangaorapa, a 5600-acre holding, was once a scrub-covered and rabbit-infested waste. It has been converted into a unit of high production in the ownership of the Mouat family over three generations, for the station is currently farmed by Mr Mouat in partnership with his two sons, Messrs W. M. and B. D. Mouat.
Mr Mouat served on the Patangata County Council at one stage being deputy chairman. He has been a supporter of Federated Farmers, is on the board of directors of Williams and Kettle Ltd and is chairman of the Lindisfarne College Board of Governors. Mr Mouat is a Justice of the Peace. He is president of the Porangahau Country Club, a novel country folk organisation with few if any parallels in this country.
Photo caption –
– MR J. A. H. INGLIS
– MR L. E. HARDY
– MR W. D. MOUATT [MOUAT]
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Page 20
Whakatu personnel
MR D. BAWDEN, chief accountant.
MR R. STAYT, stock superintendent.
MR B. MURPHY, production supervisor.
MR B. JENKINSON, production manager.
MR R. A. WHARTON, works manager, labour and by-products.
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Page 21
“CHAIN” INTRODUCED IN EARLY THIRTIES
To visit a modern freezing works and watch the butchers at work on the chain provides a contrast with the solo butchering method adopted on the farm and elsewhere.
Although the knife skills are real, it seems to the onlooker that on the chain there are as many men as there are carcases being prepared for the freezing chambers.
The “chain” method is of comparative recent vintage, for at Whakatu, anyway, the chain was not introduced until the thirties.
KEY TRADE
The system was introduced during the depression in a bid to insulate the industry from labour disputes arising out of the prevailing hard times.
Before this, slaughtering was conducted under the solo system, whereby each butcher was responsible for the killing and dressing of a single sheep at a time. It was a highly skilled trade and a key trade at that!
If slaughtermen went on strike or were not available for work, the works came to a standstill. It was in these circumstances that certain freezing works adopted the chain system about 1929 or 1930. The virtue of the system was that it enabled killing to proceed using unskilled labour, each man being responsible for only one facet of the task.
The directors of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Company saw the advantages of the chain system, and in 1932, they placed $2000 in a special reserve for the installation of the system at Whakatu “should circumstances render it necessary”.
It so happened it became necessary that very year, for there was a strike on at both Whakatu and Tomoana.
TWO UNIONS
Tomoana installed the chain system immediately the trouble broke out, but it was not plain sailing at Whakatu, no matter how desirable the chain system might seem.
Whakatu’s difficulty was that there were two butchers’ unions functioning. Members of one of the unions decided to carry on under the old system in the belief that the remaining butchers would follow suit.
The dispute continued however, but by the end of the season alterations to the slaughterhouse enabled four chains to be engaged. The throughput was 9000 to 10,000 lambs a day.
T. K. Fallwell, in his book, “The Freezing Industry of Hastings”, says that while the introduction of the chain at Whakatu was the outcome of the depression, in particular the slaughtermen’s strike of 1933, the system aided the company’s recovery from the slump.
“Indeed, after the initial experimental period,” Mr Fallwell writes, “it quickly became an indispensable feature of the freezing industry, for, by accelerating the rate of killing and lowering overall labour charges, it reduced overhead costs significantly.”
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Page 22
Planning further expansion
The next major undertaking for the board of directors of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co. is a new fellmongery.
The site will be behind the present new freezer and storage complex. The project is on the urgent list.
The decision for the moment is understood to be a little complex, for the board awaits the pleasure of the Meat Board in the granting of a licence enabling work to proceed with the preparations for the new abattoirs and freezing works at Takapau.
COMPLEMENTARY
Indeed, there is a tie-up between the Takapau project and the construction of the new fellmongery at Whakatu. One is complementary to the other in the sense that the present fellmongery does not cope with the hides from the beef kill at Whakatu.
The pressure on the existing fellmongery is becoming greater and greater as the throughput at Whakatu increases.
The hides from the beef kill are “farmed out” at present. Moreover, the motivation in the Takapau move is the need and opportunity to greatly increase the cattle kill. With a works flourishing at Takapau, full-scale fellmongery plant and processing equipment would be more than justified.
SHAREHOLDER
The Hawke’s Bay Farmers Meat Co. is a shareholder in a Napier company that handles the hides, but the pelts from the sheep kill at Whakatu are handled by the company’s present fellmongery.
The board is expecting to receive the Meat Board’s approval next month.
No figure has as yet been released for the cost of building the new fellmongery at Whakatu.
PROJECT HISTORY
Since the Whakatu company’s decision to build the multi-million dollar complex in 1972 work has proceeded apace.
The first freezer store was brought into use in March 1974. This was followed by the second freezer floor in February last year.
Eight months later, in October, the bridge linking the new complex with the main works was completed together with the marshalling floor, blast freezers and staff amenities.
The completion of the third freezer store this month brings the complex into full working capacity.
Secretary at works
Mr R. H. George, secretary of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co, is a former pupil of the Napier Boys’ High School. He was appointed at the end of 1970. He received his earlier business training in the employ of Richardson and Co. Ltd, Napier, the well known coastal shipping firm.
Photo captions –
– Mr L. Schroder, freezer foreman.
– Mr S. Thompson, freezer foreman (marshalling).
[Advertisement]
J.J. O’Connor Ltd
HASTINGS
WE ARE PLEASED TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE HAWKE’S BAY FARMERS’ MEAT CO. LTD IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THIS VAST COMPLEX.
– ROOFING
– CLADDING
– VENTILATION
– PLUMBING
– DRAINAGE
J.J. O’CONNOR LTD
Alexandra Cres., HASTINGS
PHONE 86-746
After Hours 69-993
The Daily Telegrah congratulates The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co. Ltd.
Page 23
Women at work
LEFT: Mrs Gillian Malone, courier for the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co.
BELOW: Mrs Helen Martin, receptionist at Whakatu.
[Advertisement]
Congratulations
THE H.B. FARMERS’ MEAT CO. LTD
from
STANTON BROS. (H.B.) LTD
Commercial Printers & Stationers
NAPIER & HASTINGS
SUPPLIERS OF:
– COMMERCIAL STATIONERY
– PRINTING FROM OUR OWN FACTORY (AT REAR OF OUR HASTINGS SHOP)
– OFFICE AND INDUSTRIAL STAPLING MACHINES.
LET THE FIRM WITH EXPERIENCE SUPPLY YOUR STATIONERY AND PRINTING STATIONERY. SINCE 1910.
[Advertisement]
Congratulations to the HAWKE’S BAY FARMERS’ MEAT CO…
THE Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board was there from the beginning
The Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board is pleased to be associated with the opening of the new Freezing and Storage complex at Whakatu.
Since the 1920’s The Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board has been serving the needs of Industry and the community throughout the area.
HAWKES BAY ELECTRIC POWER BOARD
HERETAUNGA ST. EAST, HASTINGS
Page 24
Whakatu’s work force
One hundred and five employees of the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co Ltd are working in the new freezer and store complex.
Most of the men were simply transferred from their positions within the main works to the new building.
The freezing works at present has a total staff of 1768, including 148 maintenance staff and 220 permanent employees.
A recent report on staff employed at the works plant reveals:
– Percentage of staff age groups employed: Under 20 years, 19 per cent; 20-30, 33 per cent; 30-40, 18 percent; over 40, 30 per cent.
– Percentage of each sex: Male, 94 percent’ female, 6 percent.
– Percentage of married and single: Married, 60 percent; single, 40 percent.
– Percentage of years service: first season, 29 percent; one to five seasons, 32 per cent; one to five seasons, 32 per cent; Over five seasons, 39 per cent.
Meaning of Whakatu
The “assembly-line” style of killing operations at the Whakatu freezing works has a strange connection with the Maori meaning of the word Whakatu.
According to Mr Taanga Tomoana, who works at Whakatu, the name is not an ancient word. It comes from a shortening of the words Whakatutu Hoaia (an assembly of soldiers).
When Te Kooti and his band were plundering the Hawke’s Bay district in the early 1860s, local Maoris were being recruited to form a force to search for the elusive rebel.
It was at Whakatu that the recruits gathered – so it became known as the place of assembly for soldiers – Whakatuta Hoaia [Whakatutu].
According to Mr Tomoana, the usual Maori word for stop is etu!
Whakatu is said by some also to mean stop, or stop, look and listen!
“The one means stop with urgency, as in an emergency,” Mr Tomoana pointed out. “Etu means stop in the sense of finality. The other word means stop in a much looser sense – stop, or do what you like”.
Mr Tomoana said that within the precincts of the Whakatu freezing works there was once a pa. A cemetery not far from the main works is the burial place of the district’s first Anglican Maori minister, the Rev. Manahi, who preached in the area in the late 1800s.
The pa site was abandoned following the destructive 1897 flood.
Photo caption – A FEATURE of the new complex is the completely enclosed loading out platform and railway siding. Capable of holding 14 insulated railway wagons or 24 shipping containers, the siding can be sealed off at night by doors at either end of the freezer stores.
[Advertisement]
BAY-BRITE STAINLESS STEELS LTD
SHEETMETAL FABRICATORS & ENGINEERS
Catering Food Handling & Sterilizing Equipment Benches Tubs Shower Trays Filtered Exhaust Systems
We congratulate the members of The H.B. Farmers’ Meat Company on meeting the challenge to establish this major and impressive Blast Freezer Complex, and also all trades involved who co-ordinated to make it possible.
CONTACT US FOR ALL SHEETMETAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING WORK AND STAINLESS STEEL EQUIPMENT
NOTE NEW ADDRESS:
P.O. Box 4024 MAYFAIR, HASTINGS
PHONE 67-039
BAY-BRITE Stainless Steel
Page 25
HB’s history on board’s walls
The board room of the Hawk’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co. at Whakatu is a place of recollection. Photographs on the walls represent a fair slice of Hawke’s Bay contemporary history.
The first board of directors elected in January, 1913, for instance, revives memories for generations living today.
The list includes Messrs C. H. Cranby (1913-16), the chairman, Davis Canning (1913-18), H. J. H. Glazebrook (1913-22), J. A. Macfarlane, deputy-chairman (1913-16), J. C. Parker (1913-26), James O’Neill (1913), W. J. Stratton (1912-21), J. D. Todd (1913-14, 1934-46) and T E. Welch (1913-47).
Personalities of a later period follow in their footsteps, and all, like the first board of directors, were conspicuous in some field of farming and business, often both.
A glance at random identifies such people as Mr C. D. Buddo (1946), a member of a well-known Canterbury family, one of two brothers who farmed at Poukawa most successfully. Their farms today are carried on by their sons, both the export and domestic meat markets being well served.
FAMOUS PAKOWHAI
There is the name of R. (Dick) Tattersall, whose father farmed a part of world famous Pakowhai, one-time fattening land that established a reputation second to none for throughput of livestock and cropping. With its tremendous depth of river-formed top-soil.
In one season alone the 300-acre holding supplied one-seventh of the wether intake at Whakatu.
When the property was sold it made record figures at auction for farming land.
Next there is the name of L. R. Averill (1947), now living in retirement at Taupo but well remembered as a farmer at Maraekakaho. His father, the late Mr Edward Averill, was a member of the board in 1921.
The late Mr Averill managed two well-known estates, Mangatoro station (Dannevirke) and Olrig Station, at the time one of the largest sheep runs in the province, stretching as it did, from the environs of Salisbury Road over Maraekakaho and Mangatahi to the fringe of Kereru. Mr Averill also farmed his “Echills” property in the same locality and it is now farmed by his grandsons.
Mr H. M. Glazebrook, of Washpool fame, was a board member from 1932-35. And other board personnel of note included the late Mr O. M. Monckton (1913-47), a member of one of the best known North island pioneering families, and Mr L. H. McHardy (1916-28), of Blackhead fame on the coast south of Pourerere.
The earlier membership includes Mr C. Smith (1926-32), Mr J. W. Ellingham (1917), Mr S. Chadwick (1940), and Mr F. S. Candy, manager from 1914 till 1938 and elected to the board in 1944.
Would hold for week
With a refrigerator, no matter what the size, the main worry is a possible power failure.
What then is the situation at the Whakatu freezing works with their new $11 million “fridge” now in full operation?
The new freezer and storage complex does not even have a backup power system. The only emergency power supply is for a number of permanently lit lights and a couple of fans.
The works’ chief engineer, Mr A. H. Waterhouse, is not worried, however. He explains that the insulation of the stories is such that in the event of a complete power failure there would be no significant rise in temperature for at least one week.
He is pretty confident a power failure would not last that long.
[Advertisement]
“We are proud to be associated with the Hawke’s Bay Farmers Meat Company Ltd.
We know that containerisation and your private rail siding will keep you modern and on the move.”
NZ Railways.
[Advertisement]
MEMBER OF THE HALL THERMOTANK GROUP
EHS
REFRIGERATION – AIR CONDITIONING – and ABATTOIR SPECIALISTS
One of the three Howden 275 horsepower completely automatic ammonia screw booster compressor sets, and a large suction separator vessel in one corner of the unmanned new Freezing & Storage complex main engine room.
We take this opportunity of congratulating The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co. Ltd., on the completion of this major expansion programme.
E.H.S. are proud to have been associated with this project, and responsible for the design, manufacture and installation of the complete Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Requirements which include –
– COLD STORAGE – BOOSTER ENGINE ROOM – MARSHALLING AREA – BLAST FREEZING – TELEMENTRY
PLUS EXTENSIONS IN THE MAIN WORKS ENGINE ROOM, WHICH TOTALS SOME 3300 HORSE POWER OF NEW MACHINERY.
E.H.S. are constantly reviewing and improving safety standards and on this particular project special excess flow valves have been installed in the 1100 foot long ammonia pipe main connecting the new complex and the main words as an added safeguard. This is only one of the many new safety features which have been incorporated in this major refrigeration project.
ELLIS HARDIE SYMINTON LTD
AUCKLAND – WELLINGTON – CHRISTCHURCH – DUNEDIN
FOR CONTRACTING – PRODUCT MANUFACTURE – SERVICE – MERCHANDISING
Page 26
Six miles of rail
The “vital statistics” of the Whakatu freezing works’ new freezer complex are impressive by any standards.
From the main works across the road the carcases are conveyed through the complex on some 9km (six miles) of rail-something like the distances between Whakatu and Taradale.
Conveyers extend for about 1km (0.8 of a mile) and a carcase by the time it leaves the killing floor takes about 15 minutes to reach the marshalling area in the new complex.
The three stores each have an area of about 19,700 square meters (180,000 square feet) and the total area, taking into account the marshalling floor, blast freezers, amenities and corridors, covers some 25,5000 square meters (274,000 square feet).
Each store can handle some 200,000 carcases which is equivalent to about 2500 tonnes. this would rise to a capacity of 3300 tonnes for meat cuts in carton form.
Holding all this produce in each store are 3400 steel post bins, stacked three high.
In all, the storage capacity of the new complex, in theory, would allow the works to store about one-third of a total sheep and lamb kill for one season.
Major role
By any denominator, the meat industry in New Zealand is huge. On 1974 figures, meat exports alone contributed 32 per cent of New Zealand’s total export revenue.
As well, the industry contributed an additional nine per cent through the export of hides, skins and pelts, tallow, sausage casings and other by-products.
It ships 13 per cent of New Zealand’s entire wool production and 36 per cent of all general cargoes.
It directly employs about 30,000 people.
New Zealand ranks high on the world scene as the world’s largest exporter of sheep meats with 52.4 per cent of all exports; the third largest exporter of beef and veal with 8.4 per cent of all exports; and the third largest exporter of all meats, with 12.1 per cent of the world total.
Photo caption – INSIDE one of the three new freezer stores, each of which can hold near 200,000 carcases (equivalent to 2500 tonnes), electrically run forklifts stack the loaded steel post bins three high – up to a height of 5.4 meters (18 feet). Each store has room for 3400 of the steel bins.
[Advertisement]
JENKINS & MACK – HAWKE’S BAY
ENGINEERS & PLUMBERS MERCHANTS
King Street, Hastings Phone 83-077
Carnegie Rd. & Holden St., Onekawa Phone 436-169
WE ARE PLEASED TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ASSIST WITH THE SUPPLY OF UTILITY EQUIPMENT AT THE H.B. FARMERS’ MEAT CO. LTD. WHAKATU FREEZING COMPLEX.
Brassfounders, Manufacturing, Heating & Ventilating Engineers
AGENTS FOR ZIP WATER HEATERS.
[Advertisement]
Tiedemann Electronics Limited
Designed and manufactured equipment
WHICH:
1. Stops the ground from freezing beneath the stores.
2. Measures humidity and room and floor temperatures.
3. Provides fire protection under heavily fluctuating temperature conditions.
4. Provides emergency battery power.
PHONE 88-729
P.O. BOX 807 ST AUBYN ST. E., HASTINGS
[Advertisement]
CRANE HIRE
A FULL RANGE OF
4 MOBILE CRANES
7½ ton STRUT JIB
12 ton COLES HYDRAULIC
16 ton KATO HYDRAULIC
20 ton KATO HYDRAULIC
with booms up to 126ft
WELDERS & ENGINEERS
(HASTINGS) LIMITED
WE ARE PLEASED TO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE H.B. FARMERS’ MEAT CO. LTD NEW BLAST FREEZING PLANT AT WHAKATU AND EXTEND BEST WISHES FOR FUTURE SUCCESS.
STRUCTURAL & GENERAL ENGINEERS
WILSON ROAD, HASTINGS. PHONE 797-600
After Hours Phone 68-348, 778-008, 775-763
[Advertisement]
FARRELL LINES INCORPORATED
GENERAL AGENTS
Dalgety New Zealand Limited
CONGRATULATE
THE H.B. FARMEMRS’ [FARMERS’] MEAT CO. LTD ON THEIR NEW FREEZER COMPLEX
MEAT LOADED FOR USA
Page 27
HARD BARGAINING, PLAIN SPEAKING NEEDED AT START
While Whakatu today is the site of one of the country’s most distinctive freezing works co-operatives, there was a time when planners feared their programme would never get off the ground. Hard bargaining and plain speaking were needed 70 years ago, a time when investment money was hard to find.
The problem in those days was to interest people who had money to spare in even small amounts. The promoters met point blank refusal rather than prompt and willing co-operation. Money was not plentiful, for times were hard.
However attractive the concept and however plausible the argument in favour, a farmer-owned freezing works to enter the export trade did not catch on as promoters hoped it would. The established overseas-owned and controlled companies, or their subsidiaries, were thought to be too strong.
CHB LOYALTY
Sound argument and common sense pleading, however, did prevail. Adequate, but not ample, funds were found. The venture was launched with high hopes for the future. There was no turning back.
But the company’s early difficulties were overcome, a contributing factor being the loyalty and the support given by Central Hawke’s Bay interests, notably in the Waipukurau district.
Whakatu in time, became essentially a Hawke’s Bay enterprise. Consistent support from all points of the compass proved the point. Down through the years many roads have led to Whakatu, particularly roads for the shifting and conveyance of livestock.
It was not surprising, therefore, the response to the launching of the company’s multi-million-dollar enterprise should have been instant and spontaneous. And there were practical consequences – a number of firms and a large part of the district’s work force taking part in the business that the project promoted.
Major contracts were let and business generally was the better for what Whakatu had to offer in the testing of resources and skills. One consequence was the magnitude of the concreting work. What is believed to be the biggest pour of concrete ever attempted in Hawke’s Bay was handled by the contractor.
The spending of $10.75 million on a building project, to start with, requires local body authorisation. The local authority in this instance was the Hawke’s Bay County Council. The company’s Whakatu complex therefore became a matter of district pride.
Man is still needed
While mechanisation plays a big part in the new freezer complex, man is still needed for certain critical operations.
The product is conveyed from the killing chains to the blast freezers, to the cold stores and finally to the transporter by machinery, but for the movement to operate successfully the work of man is vital.
To this end, men working in the complex have been provided with up-to-date working conditions, and been clearly instructed on the new procedures involved for the efficient movement of carcases through the plant.
IN COLD STORES
Better working conditions have been achieved in the cold stores by refining al labour operations to the insulated platforms and using fork lifts to shift the pallets within the low temperature storage area.
Safety of personnel and the protection of the product in the cold store has been given special attention.
The five electrically operated, vertical-rise doors are fitted with escape doors which can only be operated from the inside to give an emergency exit from the low temperature areas.
Exit doors are also fitted in the five evaporator rooms. At every main door there is an ammonia alarm box and a lock-in alarm box. These areas are lit permanently by lamps which are wired into the emergency power supply system.
An automatic sprinkler system has been installed in all non-frozen areas including the space above the insulated ceiling panels.
A heat sensing detection system is installed inside the storage area. It measures differences in temperature and will trip the fire alarms if a fire begins in the frozen storage areas.
[Advertisement]
PRICE McLAREN LTD
110 Nelson Street South, Hastings
P.O. Box 332 Phone 84-690
ARGON ARC WELDING
SHEET METAL WORKERS
STAINLESS STEEL & ALLOY FABRICATORS
We are pleased to have been able to assist The H.B. Farmers’ Meat Co. Ltd in the construction of their new freezing complex at Whakatu.
[Advertisement]
PARALLEL BLOCKS Ltd.
OMAHU ROAD, HASTINGS, PHONE 89-874
CONGRATULATE THE
H.B. FARMERS’ MEAT CO. LTD
NEW FREEZING COMPLEX AT WHAKATU
[Advertisement]
Together…
The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Co. and RUDNEV (N.Z.) LTD
Have successfully completed a major project important to the efficiency of Primary Industry in Hawke’s Bay
Planning, designing and building; the processes that go into effective insulating walls in cool stores are the Rudnev responsibility – we take our responsibility seriously.
The Rudnev system offers planners these advantages:-
– Simplicity of building and planning, completely solid, free standing wall units in modular form to suit any application.
– Able to resist impact and stand up to abrasion and heavy usage – not the case with stud wall systems or cement rendered walls.
– No further surface finishing required.
– Mini-maintenance – panels have a heavy duty vinyl coating which is stoved at 350 degrees F. to produce a tough and abrasion resistant finish.
– Hygienic – Smooth vinyl finish cannot harbour bacterial or mould growth.
– White exterior finish reduces the skin temperature and thus reduces the load on refrigeration plant.
These features do not apply to conventional construction methods.
We offer a complete design and construction service.
Page 28
[Advertisement]
From one Hawke’s Bay Company to another
We congratulate The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Company Ltd on completion of their huge new $10 million freezer storage complex.
We are pleased to be closely associated with an expanding industry, particularly one whose operation, as with our own, has developed through the energies and resources of Hawke’s Bay people.
GM Baillie Farmers MOTORS LIMITED LMVD
Congratulations
[Advertisement]
Action Kleen Industries Ltd
supplied another MULTI-CLEAN
automatic scrubber
FOR THE H.B. FARMERS’ MEAT CO. LTD, WHAKATU
Cleaning the world is an easy job for the Multi-Clean 32-B Automatic Scrubber.
N.Z. DISTRIBUTORS –
ACTION KLEEN INDUSTRIES LTD. Leyland Street, Onekawa. Phone 434-619
Printed and Published by The Daily Telegraph Co. Ltd., Tennyson Street, Napier
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Subjects
Business / Organisation
The Hawke's Bay Farmers' Meat Company Ltd, Whakatu WorksFormat of the original
Newspaper supplementDate published
30 January 1976Publisher
The Daily TelegraphAcknowledgements
Published with permission of Hawke's Bay Today
People
- J B A'Deane
- Bob Anderson
- Gary Augustine
- E Averill
- L R Averill
- I A Barnett
- W Barrett
- D Bawden
- S T Belcher
- H Brenton-Rule
- C D Buddo
- I D Cameron
- H M Campbell
- F S Candy
- J Davis Canning
- R S Chadwick
- M J Corrigan
- G H Cranby
- William Davidson
- George Ebbett
- T S Ellingham
- T K Fallwell
- R N Fergusson
- R H George
- H J H Glazebrook
- H M Glazebrook
- M G Groome
- Robert Harding
- L E Hardy
- A M Hartley
- J A H Inglis
- B Jenkinson
- Sir Harold Johnstone
- D R Little
- J A Macfarlane
- Duncan MacIntyre
- J C Mackersey
- G A Maddison
- Gillian Malone
- Helen Martin
- L H McHardy
- Audrey Menzies
- Bruce Menzies
- G E Merriken
- B D Mouat
- W D Mouat
- W M Mouat
- B Murphy
- J J O'Connor
- James O'Neill
- M J O'Neill
- G J Parker
- J C Parker
- A C Prentice
- O M Monckton
- Neville Rodgers
- H W Smith
- W J Stratton
- E M C Sullivan
- J D Todd
- L Schroder
- C Smith
- Helen Soundy, nee Inglis
- R Stayt
- R [Dick] Tattersall
- S Thompson
- Taanga Tomoana
- A H Waterhouse
- T E Welch
- R A Wharton
- R H Whyte
Accession number
887/1217/36601Supporters and sponsors
We sincerely thank the following businesses and organisations for their support.
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