From the Hawera Star. The chief dairying district in New Zealand lies, in the province of Taranaki on the west coast of the North Island. It has anarea of 3810 square miles. Reference to a map will show that it occupies a nose of territory lying between 38 and 40 degrees of south latitude, with Mount Egmont as its dominating feature and New Plymouth as its seaport. The country lying eastward to the mountain is an extensive fertile plain carrying rich herbage supplying excellent pasturage, for dairy cattle. The whole of this now most valuable land was reclaimed from the original bush by the early pioneer farmers. Prior to 1880 very little dairying it appears w ras attempted by the settlers, and it is interesting to learn that the first creamery (or factory as it is called in New Zealand) was started and successfully run by a remarkable Chinaman, Chew Chong by name. His initial difficulty was to find a competent butter-maker, as the farm method of butter-making then in vogue was very primitive. The butter was sold to the storekeepers (fourpence a pound was considered a high price). who gave goods to the farmers in exchange. The mixed butters were milled and the produce shipped in a salted condition in kegs to their customers. Chew Chong introduced Danj ish cream separators, suitable large 1 churns and butter-workers, and insisted upon absolute cleanliness in. the factory. His first factory was a great success, and additional factories were then started. The factory butter I gained the highest prizes at shows and fetched 24s per cwt. more than the milled butter. Later the farmers themselves formed co-operative societies and started butter and cheese-making factories of their own, with the result that, so far as South Taranaki is concerned, dairying is practically now the only agricultural pursuit. The present position, of dairying in the Dominion is officially stated by the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey) as follows: "New Zealand has now the distinct tion of exporting more dairy produce than' any other .other country in. the wprld. She leads not only in the quantity, of her output; brit in its quality. So successful have been the New ..Zealand dairy factories in the all-round improvements made that the quality of the butter and cheese exported is equal to the best imported into the United Kingdom. The grading returns give this, splendid testimony. During the season just closed, practically 97 per cent, of the Dominion's exports of butter and cheese were classed as first grade. This is a record, and may be taken as an indication that dairy factory managers, directors and suppliers are aiming at producing nothing but the best article." The social and material influence of dairying when conducted in the right co-operative spirit and along modern scientific lines of procedure is indicated by the following further quotation from the words of the Prime Minister:—-"Nothing has helped the industry more than the development and extension of the dairy factories in Taranaki. These factories are responsible for the well-being of the many thousands who are settled on the land, and as well for the material up-building and prosperity of the towns and villages of the province. To those who had the faith and enterprise to initiate the dairy factory movement in Taranaki—who laid the foundations of the present prosperity of the dairying industry—the people of the province are under a deep debt of gratitude Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIII, 16 October 1923, Page 2