The A to Z Challenge: F is for Frank

And also for farmer.

In an author's note at the end of Settling the Account, where I express my heartfelt thanks to my husband for his never-failing support and encouragement, I mention that he was my inspiration for the very finest aspects of Frank’s character. So it probably goes without saying that Frank is one of my favourites.

As a young man Frank's shy (especially of girls!) and inclined to daydream. He takes some time, and near-disaster, to find his inner strength. He grows into a fine man, a wonderful husband and father, and (an appellation he laughs off) a prominent citizen.

Frank's also one of the pioneers of what has become New Zealand's most important industry: dairy farming. This industry began with scattered families keeping a few cows on bush blocks, making butter and perhaps cheese for their own consumption, hoping to barter any surplus for goods at the local store. It's grown to its current stature thanks, back in those early days, in a large part to men like Frank, who through vision and hard work improved the quality of their herds and organised the formation of our first dairy co-operatives: factories owned and directed by the farmers themselves. Of course, as Frank himself says, he couldn't have done it without Lizzie.

Dairy Company (Hukanui). Men with horse drawn carts alongside the Hukanui Dairy Co. factory. Original photographic prints and postcards from file print collection, Box 14. Ref: PAColl-6585-13. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23095879

 

This week in New Zealand history: first shipment of frozen export produce

Frozen meat had been successfully exported from Australia in 1879, and a few years later New Zealand had its own first shipment.

On the 15th of February 1882, the Dunedin sailed from Port Chalmers for London. The Dunedin was a sailing ship, but a steam-powered freezing plant had been installed on board, and thousands of sheep carcasses frozen for shipping. The exporters must have been delighted with the outcome; a carcass that would have fetched 13 shillings in New Zealand returned over 22 shillings on the London market.

That first shipment carried butter as well as meat, and marked the beginning of a true export market for New Zealand's dairy produce. No longer were farmers limited to selling what butter they could persuade the local storekeeper to take, often in exchange for goods rather than for cash. Herd numbers expanded, more butter factories opened, and the co-operative system of factory ownership blossomed.

In Mud and Gold, Frank first gets the idea of trying to set up one such co-operative in Ruatane, although he will face some scepticism from the older farmers.