The Hastings Farmers’ Association discussed in 1890 the establishment of a dairy factory “for the manufacture of butter; and an article that is good is saleable anywhere”.
The Heretaunga Plains were said to be very suitable for butter due to the amount of lime in the soil.
In 1892, a company called the Heretaunga Co-operative Dairy Company Limited was formed.
Its creamery opened on the corner of St George’s Road and Havelock Road in 1893.
Butter produced there was all sold locally for 10 pence in winter (it kept longer) and nine pence in summer.
Butter was made using a separator. This process was also conducted at many homes, where cream was skimmed off the top of milk and then allowed to sour for butter-making.
By using a device, which resembled a concrete mixer, butter fat was separated from whey (skim milk) and formed real butter around the paddles inside the machine. Before electricity, this was described as a “laborious process”.
As there were no refrigerators then, to preserve household butter as long as possible, many families wrapped it in muslin cloth and placed it in a pan of cold salt water to be stored in a cool place on the south side of the house.
The St George’s creamery struck some supply problems due to the small number of cows supplying the factory, especially when 23 out of the 81 cows tested positive for tuberculosis and had to be destroyed.
More dairy farms would soon be established, especially around Mahora, Raureka and Clive.
A hundred years ago, the New Zealand public were concerned about the cost of butter. There were no processed foods then – and any changes in prices to staples such as milk, flour and butter played havoc on the mostly static incomes.
It’s like what is playing out today – in 1920, high export prices dictated domestic butter prices.
Although beyond the scope of this article, there were many attempts to juggle (by the not-so invisible hand of the Government) butter prices between farmers, export and domestic markets.
Butter was a difficult market to be in for dairy companies. The Heretaunga Co-operative Dairy Company in 1931 paid out advances of £30,000 (2025: $4.1 million) to its suppliers, only to see world market prices for butter (and other commodities) collapse during the Great Depression.
Careful financial management was then needed to avoid hardship over the next five years in adjusting supplier payouts without sending both the company and farmers broke.
While life was at times difficult for the dairy farmers and companies, it was also hard for the consumer – except for 1925 (100 years ago) – there was simply too much butter flooding the London market. Butter prices in New Zealand were then reduced domestically.
In 1935, the situation had reversed and due to the high London market prices, butter production in Hastings rose.
During World War II there was, of course, butter rationing – and just before this was announced, shops in Hastings noted the extra demand for butter. Mothers sent their children along to buy extra butter – and when shopkeepers asked what their mother was going to use the extra butter for, in many cases the children replied: “Mother was going to lay in a store of cakes.”
Refrigerators were not common household appliances then and those who had them purchased excess butter to store – but this came with a warning: “The butter will not keep indefinitely.”
Butter rationing was lifted in June 1950 and the end of government subsidies to producers meant it went up in price.
One Hastings grocer noted there was no increase in demand for butter after the rationing ended, believing the price increases affected sales.
Bakers in Hastings also suffered from the price increases for butter, saying the demand for small cakes had dropped. “Block cake and sponges are still good sellers,” he said. Another said he wasn’t worried about the falling-off of “smalls”, as “housewives, if they have not lost the cake-making ‘knack’, are loathe to bother with cake-making chores”. In other words, the demand for the larger cakes would not diminish.
The price increases in June 1950 also applied to bread, eggs, tea and milk.
Interestingly, margarine sales did not increase to the detriment of butter.
The Consumers Price Index (CPI), formed in 1949, showed the effect of these increases in 1950.
Businesses who provided “cut lunches” for the hard-working people of the Hastings CBD were especially concerned about these price increases, as any passing-on of these costs had to be approved by the Government’s Price Tribunal. In that highly-regulated environment, this was confusing, expensive, baffling and complex to many businesses and consumers.
One café owner said he needed to increase prices by 30% to keep up with the price hikes.
“I’d hate to be a restaurant proprietor,” remarked a hotel keeper – “they had no bar trade, so would feel the increases more.”
Price controls were part of the Economic Stabilisation Scheme post-World War II to manage inflation and ensure stability to create affordable living standards for returning servicemen.
Any retail increases in prices over the set limits were punishable by a trip to the Hastings courthouse.
It would be many years before price controls were lifted – but most were gone during the 1960s. (The 1980s economic reforms deregulated prices, wages and many other parts of the New Zealand economy.)
After World War II, returned servicemen established dairy farms around Tūtira and Pūtōrino, but process-cropping and other types of farming yielded better returns and dairying began to decline in the 1960s.
Dairying was not a sustainable business in Hawke’s Bay – our warm, dry climate was against it as “cows need a flush of soft green feed”.
The Heretaunga Co-operative Dairy Co merged with the Tui Co-operative Dairy Co in Pahiatua in 1974, and in 1975 it was liquidated.
Consolidation of the dairy industry occurred in 2001 with the formation of Fonterra, which today collects a share of around 77.7% of New Zealand’s milk pool.
– Michael Fowler is doing a talk on the history of Hastings’ Fantasyland on Wednesday September 3. Check eventfinda.co.nz for details.
