Chew Chong Plays Leading Role in Dairy Industry

Taranaki's early farmers were a tough bunch. Most began with farms covered in bush and slowly hacked and burnt the bush into paddocks. They made some money off their farm but to make enough for their families to live on they had to find extra work. Some farmers worked on the roads or in logging gangs while others gathered and sold grass seed.

Things were really tough in the 1880s. An economic depression hit and prices for farm goods hit a low patch. Farmers needed money desperately. Luckily a man called Chew Chong was out there helping out.

Rewind to the 1870s

True or false?

1. Settlers from Britain had been living in New Plymouth for no longer than 30 years.
2. Most of the fathers of these early settlers had been farmers.
3. Some small dairy factories were making butter and cheese.

4. Farmers burnt the bush and grew their grass in the ash.

5. Farmers couldn't have any cows until they grew enough grass.

Shutterbug

Check out this photo and with a classmate decide:

• What do the words "house cow" really mean?
• Would this cow would be part of a large herd?
• What would this milk be used for? There is far too much for one family to drink and there was no refrigeration in those days.

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

What if you lived through these times as part of a farming family? Would you give these things the thumbs up or the thumbs down?

1. Children in farming families milked cows by hand, night and morning.
2. Cows were sent into the bush to graze so when it was time to milk the kids had to go and find them.
3. School was hard work for a lot of farm children. They were just too tired.
4. For a long time butter was made in the home.
5. Butter was sold by farmers to merchants who would mix the different batches they bought and then sell that.
6. Some farmers put their butter in kegs, covered it in brine (salt water) and sealed up the kegs.
7. Dairy products went off quite quickly, even the butter in kegs.
8. Britain had millions of butter eaters.
9. Someone invented refrigeration and when a refrigerated ship called the Dunedin made it all the way to London, its cargo of New Zealand butter was still fresh.  
10. Butter factories began to open.

Backgrounder

This week's story is about a remarkable Chinese immigrant who did very well in Taranaki while his countrymen suffered prejudice in Otago. Read this webpage for some interesting background about the first Chinese people in New Zealand.

Word wise

All these words are in this week's story. Decide whether the best meaning will be (a) or (b) and then check your choice when you read the story.

1. visionary (a) thinks about the way things could happen in the future or (b) imaginary

2. poverty stricken (a) hit with a bad illness or (b) having trouble finding enough money to live on.

3. acupuncture  (a) a way of repairing wagon wheels or (b) a medical treatment using needles.

4. epidemic (a) when many people are affected by the same disease at the same time or (b) a  rare but fatal disease that people must have inoculations for.

5. director (a) the person who tells actors what to do or (b) a business leader who helps make decisions that will lead the company to business success.

6. merchant clerk (a) a secretary type person for a person who trades,buys and sells or (b) a person who buys and then sells agricultural machinery.

7. marketable (a) something that is very well made or (b) something that people will want to buy as soon as they know about it.

8. impoverished (a) very poor or (b) very skinny.

9. inducted (a) given electrical power (b) admitted.

10. social conscience (a) a feeling that all people in a community should be treated fairly or (b) a feeling that people should do their bit to help others in the community.

Read on

Begin this story and read down to Fungus fever.

Look here!

Check out this map and find the place where Chew Chong was born. The village isn't named but you will be able to work out where it is. Write a sentence or two that will let another person find that place on the same map much faster than you. For a start you could mention which part of China Guangzhou is in.

Map tracker

Print out this map outline.

Join on another piece of paper and add two more countries in the south and south east before marking the route of Chew Chong's trip to New Zealand. Label the places he stayed in and print occupations in each place to summarise what he did.

I could be called...

From what you have read so far which of these words could be used to describe Chew Chong?

Determined, timid, strong willed, creative, strong-minded, purposeful, idle, persevering, enterprising, go ahead, apathetic, resourceful, self reliant, keen, responsible, entrepreneurial, lethargic, ambitious, follower, leader, original, risk taker, gambler.

Fungus fever

Read this section of the story about fungus and look closely at the Taranaki Herald advertisement from 1874. Design and write up an ad that a shopkeeper in China could use to sell this fungus. Write your ad in English, unless you know Chinese.

What's that mean?

The fungus section ends, "At worst it was pocket money, but better than that, for many it was a kind of salvation." Think, pair and share ideas. What does that mean? Who were these "many?" Make up a short skit that shows how people felt about being able to make some extra cash from selling fungus to Chew Chong.

Think about this! (You may be able to work these facts into your skit)

• For some farmers, fungus may have been the difference between selling up and holding onto farms in the hope of better times.
• Surplus butter had to be bartered with storekeepers for supplies or for four pence a pound. Fungus, once gathered, fetched three pence a pound and it was growing freely in the countryside.
• Fungus was easily gathered by all members of the family.

Read on!

Read through to the end of the section with the heading "Better butter". List all the different types of businesses Chew Chong set up or had something to do with. Next to each business list all the jobs that were created for people because of his ideas.

That's innovation!

This is the little butter factory that Chew Chong produced prize winning butter from. Farmers would load big milk cans onto their wagons every morning and then drive their horse and wagon to the factory. This photo from about 10 years later shows farmers waiting to deliver their milk at an Inglewood factory.

At the factory the milk would be poured into a mechanical separator to separate the cream from the milk. The butter factories only needed the cream so the farmers were able to take away the skim milk to feed their pigs.

Chew Chong's Jubilee factory made the butter but Chew Chong also built a network of skimming stations. Farmers just delivered their milk to the closest station where the cream was separated and then picked up and taken to the Jubilee factory.

Besides all Chew Chong's butter ideas that you read about in the story, he also installed New Zealand's first freezing machine into a butter factory.

Factory rules

Check again to find out why Chew Chong's staff was able to make prize winning butter. Write a set of rules that could have been tacked to the wall of the Jubilee factory for these butter makers to follow.

In the hotseat

The story tells us that Chew Chong opened his butter factory in 1887. He paid the farmers for their milk and used the cream to make the butter. A few years later farmers began to form co-operative dairy companies. The farmers in a district would all chip in to buy the land, build the factory and install the machinery. The farmers would become owners and shareholders and butter or cheese makers would run the factory. The more money the factory and company made, the more the farmers would make. Eventually all the factories became co-operatives.

Chew Chong was virtually driven out of the dairy industry because of farmer run co-operatives. His milk supply dwindled and it became impossible to make all the butter he needed to. What do you think? "That's not fair" or "tough luck, that's business." Think pair and share your opinion with someone else. Make sure you give the reasons for your answers. Afterwards all the "not fairs" could debate this issue with the "tough lucks"

But wait there's more!

Finish the story and then check out these two short stories about Chew Chong. This one is about an amazing underwater water race that Chew Chong had built in 1887 to power his butter factory. In this story you can find out how 94 year old Mr Wilkes remembers his remarkable grandfather. They are both worth a read.

My card son

Design a business card that summarises the life of Chew Chong. In the middle of the card print his name using capital letters. Print the date and place of birth and death in the top left-hand corner. In the top right hand corner describe a success achieved in his lifetime and in the bottom left hand corner list his various occupations. In the bottom right-hand corner list three words that describe Chew Chong's life.

When you have finished find a classmate and using your card, introduce yourself to them in the role of Chew Chong.

Fast forward to 2004

A map at Puke Ariki shows 114 Taranaki Dairy Companies and Branches in 1935. All these little co-operative dairy factories around Taranaki have closed now and all milk goes to the giant Whareroa factory near Hawera. New Zealand's dairy industry is run by a huge company called Fonterra.

Look here to find out:

• Who owns this company?
• What happens now to most of New Zealand's dairy products?
• How much milk do New Zealand's cows produce each year?
• What famous brands are parts of New Zealand Milk Ltd?

Click on "News" and find the story with the headline:

Fonterra's "Good Bacteria" Adds Value to Yogurt in South Africa

Read this news story and work out the link from the past that tells us that if Chew Chong was alive today he would be very interested in this news.