Wainuiomata Museum Newsletter November 2015
The cheese factory was similar to that at Whitemans Valley in that it had two vats. The Mata Co-operative Dairy Company (Ltd) was incorporated under the Companies Act 1908 on 19 September 1919 and its objects were to manufacture and sell butter, cheese, milk, ham, etc. Frank Raymond Jenkins (1886-1964), son of Edward Jarrett Jenkins, was one of the company directors.
The shareholders were John Burt Wood (50 shares), Osmond Disley (250), Henry George Cook (50), Ernest John August (250), David Dickie & William George McGowan (250), William Thomas Dick (30), and Christian Ludvig Jensen (40).
The factory was opened on Saturday 22 Nov 1919 by Thomas Mason Wilford, MP for the Hutt Electorate, in the presence of a large number of settlers and friends. It produced three tons of cheese a fortnight and it was a two day trip with a team of three horses to cart the load to the cool store in Wellington.
The Mata Co-operative Dairy Company went into liquidation in 1929 and final payments were made to shareholders in 1943.
For more information:
Mata Cheese Factory and Wainuiomata Milk Production.