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| Coromandel - Early Butter Days - graphics of cow, cow being milked and butter courtesy Graphic Stock. Photos Long Bay and Gorrie homestead courtesy CR Ball |
Reading newspapers about the opening of a creamery dairy factory , felt it must have
been an exciting occasion, for the residents of Coromandel township and area on
the Coromandel Peninsula, back in October in 1911. One that marked a change from
gold field activities to farming
activities. The Auckland Star reporting the event wrote that the Chairman of
Directors , said in the opening speech that the Coromandel Co-operative Dairy Company Limited:-
" would
be run on a thoroughly co-operative basis. Some people were of opinion that the
factory was too large for Coromandel, but he considered that results would
prove that such was not the case, and that the industry would increase in the
course of a year or two. he hoped the present plant would need to be enlarged,
and prove a boon to settlers". (Auckland
Star 09 /10 /1911 P 2)
Evidently the
opening of the Coromandel Co- Operative Dairy Company culminated in a " treat of all treats" - "Coromandel made butter used in the afternoon tea prepared by
Mrs Gorrie and other ladies of the
community. "( Mrs Gorrie being Barbara Gorrie, wife of Morton
Gorrie - farmer and an active member
back then, of the Coromandel
Community).
The opening of this
dairy factory was the culmination of a meeting held by the resident farmers in
1910. A committee made up of Messrs.
Gorrie, Troughcar, Hovell, Jeffcoat, R. A. Wight, S. James, jun., W. Turner, A.
Otto, and M. Hawkeswood, was set up to progress the ideas based on a co-operative,
rather than a proprietary business concern.
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TURNING THE
WORKED-OUT GOLDFIELDS TO GOOD ACCOUNT: THE OPENING OF A CREAMERY AT COROMANDEL,
AUCKLAND, RECENTLY. Photo W. E. Carlyon Auckland Weekly News (26 OCTOBER 1911)
courtesy 'Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19111026-10-4 '
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Dairying and dairy
factories processing farm produce was sweeping the country at the turn of the
20th century a follow on from
butter made at the end of 1886 at a little factory at Pukekura near
Cambridge. The end of the first decade of the 1900's , marked the opening of a
a number of small dairy factories across
the Coromandel Peninsula and Hauraki as farming took the place of
extensive gold mining and bush felling
activities - Bagnall Brothers Creamery
Turua about 1900; Paeroa Butter Factory 1901;
Netherton Creamery 1905; Mercury Bay Butter Factory at Whitianga in 1911; Matatoki in 1912;
Hikutaia Cheese Factory 1917; Tairua
Butter Factory in 1922. Lemuel ( father in law of Mary Morton - sister of
Morton Gorrie ) and of Bagnall Bros and Co. was attributed with the
first radiator dairy factory in New Zealand established at Turua near Thames in
1902
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showing the first radiator dairy factory in New Zealand, erected on Messrs Bagnall Bros Turua estate, Thames courtesy Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19021023-5-
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Chairman of
Directors of Coromandel Co-Operative Dairy Company, Morton Gorrie was eldest
son of William Gorrie Jnr ( of Upton & Co - booksellers and stationers
based in
Auckland ). Morton Gorrie was not new to the farming industry. With his brother Keith Gunion Gorrie ( who
died in the Boer AKA South African War ) originally farmed near Maungatautari
near Cambridge and Pukekura. It is no
doubt that he would have been influenced by the initiatives of Henry Reynolds
in the processing of butter in 1886 at Pukekura. Also that of Joseph Banks , of
the New Zealand Frozen Meat and Storage Company who was said " to
have great faith in the future of the
butter industry" (Auckland Star, 07/05/ 1888, P 5) Susan Banks nee Buckland bought 'Gwynnelands' near Cambridge, in 1895, after the death of her husband Joseph. Their son Norman was to continue farming here and in establishing the Cambridge Dairy Co-Op.
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| Looking across Lake Karapiro towards Maungatautari - photo courtesy Chris Ball 2014 |
By 1909 Morton Gorrie and his wife Barbara had moved
to Coromandel on the Coromandel Peninsula, continuing a farming life and
contributing as active members of the
Coromandel Community. A July meeting of
the Coromandel Bowling Club saw Gorrie elected President of the committee .
Elected at the meeting were : " Patrons,
the Hon. James McGowan, M.L.C., and Mr. E. H. Taylor, M.P.; president, Mr M.
Gorrie; vice-presidents, Messrs. G. H. Applegate, S. James, H. Rostgard, and C.
Fraser; treasurer, Mr. G. F. Mellars; hon. secretary, Mr. G. G. Paul;
committee, Messrs. Ben. B. Johnson, E H. Law, G. St. George, J. W. Barker, Rev.
C. A. Vaughan, treasurer and secretary ex officio; auditor, Mr. A.
Baker." (Auckland Star
, 07/ 07/ 1909 P 7)
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| Bowling club committee, Coromandel. Ref: 1/2-C-028340-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23111737 |
Before Christmas of
1909, The Coromandel Bowling Club opened their new bowling green, celebrating
the occasion with a large number of visitors from elsewhere and a " roll up. " For Morton Gorrie, the sport of bowling was
popular with family members , his father William
Gorrie, one of the first members of the Auckland Bowling Club.
New
Zealand Herald 21 December 1909 Page 8
courtesy Papers Past, National Library NZ
From
newspaper accounts a February 1916
meeting of Coromandel School of Mines,
five years after the Coromandel Co- Op Dairy Company in 1911 , indicated mutual
benefit to the mining and agricultural community of the mining school.
" The report showed that the equipment of the
school had been kept thoroughly up to-date, and emphasised the value of the
institution not only to the mining community, but also to all classes on the
peninsula for technical, scientific, and agricultural purposes."
At the same meeting elections of Coromandel School of Mines Office Bearers and Council took place:
" Office-bearers for the ensuing year were elected as
follows President, Mr. T. W. Rhodes, M.P. vice presidents, Messrs. J. B.
Rockliff and F P Burgess, secretary, Mr. A. G. Harvey, council. Messrs. L.
Autridge, A King, W Hunter M. Gorrie, T. A. Norrie, J O'Hara, and E J
Surflen."
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| Group portrait of the School of Mines council, Coromandel, New Zealand. Photographed by an unknown photographer 1915-1916. School of Mines council, Coromandel. Whites Aviation Ltd :Photographs. Ref: 1/2-023131-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22722894 |
Morton Gorrie was no stranger to mining in the Coromandel Peninsula for his father William Gorrie had been involved in the Chamber of Mines when it was formed in 1895 , Also a shareholder and director in the gold mining companies Coromandel
Freehold Proprietary, Zealandia, Buffalo, Kennedy Bay, Miowera United, Pride of
Tokatea, New Tokatea, Midas and Hauraki North.
The Coromandel Co- Op Dairy Company continued to
go from strength to strength. In June 1922 extensive alterations were announced. An
outcome of increased tons produced at the factory as a result of increased
butter fat supplies from the Coromandel area. However at an extraordinary
meeting of the Coromandel Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd in 1926 it was
resolved to dispose of company's assets
and liabilities to the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company ( what was to
become a giant corporate company in NZ ) The decision was made to voluntarily wind up the local creamery.
In the 1930's Morton Gorrie moved Northward, leaving behind the memories of a relevant part of the past of New Zealand history - what was the Coromandel Co-Operative Dairy Company or creamery.
Reference Sources:
- AJHR - sheep returns M Gorrie Coromandel
- Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 16, June 1972 Thames Valley Dairy Company by CHAS. TOWNSHEND
- Cambridge Museum http://www.cambridgemuseum.org.nz/index.htmbiographies - Gorrie , Pukekura Dairy Factory
- Auckland Weekly News 23 October 1902 p005
- New Zealand Herald 21 December 1909 Page 8
- Taranaki Herald 6 September 1910 Page 4
- Auckland Star 9 October 1911 Page 2
- SCHOOL OF MINES. New Zealand Herald, 26 February 1916, Page 5
- Ohinemuri Gazette 3 December 1917 Page 2
- New Zealand Herald 22 June 1922 Page 8
- New Zealand Herald 6 September 1926 Page 16
