Chew Chong Family Tree

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www.ft.meads.co.nz/individual.php?pid=I9417&ged=meadsmain.ged

Given Names: Chau
Surname: Tseung
Birth: 1828 -- Hoiping ‎(now Kaiping)‎, China
Death: 7 October 1920 ‎(Age 92)‎ -- New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand

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OBITUARY MR CHEW CHONG. The death occurred at New Plymouth yesterday morning of Mr Chew Chong, who was a well-known figure in Taranaki, and who has been credited with establishing the dairy industry in the province. Mr Chong, who was born in China, had reached the age of 92. He went. to school in China. He had associated with English people since his early days when he was a household servant in Singapore for ten years. In 1855 he went to Melbourne and wag engaged in storekeeping and goldmining for eleven - years. In 1868 Mr Chong proceeded to New Zealand, landing at lsunedin, where he remained -for two. years. He commenced-travelling the colony buying old metal to send to China, and during his journey he discovered the edible fungus —a favourite food in China. He was the first to begin the fungus industry, and bought and exported the first shipment. From the years 1872. to 1904, fungus of the declared value of 305,995 was exported from New Zealand, jMr Chong began buying in 1868, arid many a,backblock bush settler can tes, tify to the help derived from the fungus harvest. It wa s in 1870 that the late^ Mr j Chong settled in New Plymouth and esi tablished a store, in conjunction with which he also ran a fungus business. He continued operations for over twenty years, besides having branches at j Inglewood and Eltham for some time. He subsequently turned his attention | "to dairy farming when farm-made butj ter would bring only 4d per lb, and in I 1887 established the Jubilee Dairy Fac! Tory at Eltham and equipped it with a ; separator. In 1889 he exhibited I samples of factory-made butter at the Dunedin Exhibition, and gained two certificates and a silver cup for the best half-ton available for export. Mr Chong claimed to have been a 'pioneer of the dairy industry in the Eltham district. At one time he had 200 cows in milk in order to be inde: pendent in the matter of supply for his ] factory, and h© afterwards added a- second. After sixteen years' experience, during which he had paid away large sums to local farmers, Mr Chong sold out. Retiring from business in 1900, Mr j Chong remained in New Plymouth, hayi ing resided at Vogeltown and Courtenay street.,, Mr Chong L married a daughter, of Mr Joseph Whatton; of Masterton, in 1875. He is survived by a widow and three daughters and three sons. The family are: Mrs Wilkes (New Plymouth)," Mrs Wilkie (Rotorua), , Miss Freda Chong (New Plymouth), Mr A. J. Chong. (Stratford), | and Messrs W. H. and Gerald Chong j (New Plymouth) .—News. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, 8 October 1920, Page 4

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The Chinese Benefactor.

CHEW CHONG ESTABLISHES THE FACTORY SYSTEM.

The most remarkable personality in the establishment of dairying in Taranaki, as indeed of the Dominion, was.a little Chinese genfleman, Chew Chong. It was he who built the first dairy factory^and provided the struggling settler with his first means of making a cash transaction in having created a market for the fungus found in the bush and facetiously known as Taranaki "wool," Chew Chong was no ordinary Chinaman. Though not a mandarin, nor of the educated class, he well merited the high esteem in which he was held by all classes because of his high principles and generous instincts. To the first-settlers who faced the wilderness with determination and hope as their only capital the little Chinese pedlar (a buyer of old iron in the first place) came as a general benefactor. In his wanderings he recognised the fungus growing on the tawa, pukutea and mahoe trees as something similar to an. edible fungus greatly prized in his country as a vegetable. With that keen foresight which always distinguished him, he decided to establish a trade in it with his native land. A trial shipment was made, and the venture at once proved a success. It is difficult at this distance to realise what the work of Chew Chong meant to the pioneer dairymen of Taranaki. When he commenced to purchase fungus the settlers lived by a system of barter. Fourpenee a pound" was a high price for the butter they produced. The storekeeper accepted the butter in exchange for stores, milled it and shipped it Home in a salted condition in kegs as ordinary cargo. It was a matter of great difficulty to obtain sufficient cash to meet the annual rates levied by the local bodies, amounting generally to 5s or 7s 6d. It was not till they were paid spot cash for their fungus that the settlers knew the delightful sound of the clinking of coin of the realm. The trade in Taranaki "wool" rapidly developed until one year, about 1885, the export of fungus amounted to. £72,000, more than the total value of butter shipped from the province. This important means of revenue was a Godsend to many a settler, for the price of butter had fallen to about threepence a potmd at that time, and but for the fungus many a family would have had ruin staring them in the face. It was in the year 1868 that Chew Chong commenced buying fungus. For four years the Customs authorities of China kept no account of the amount imported, but when Chew Chong was in China later he was informed that from 1872 to 1904 the imports were valued at £375,000.

«as were the services rendered to the Taranaki pioneer by the establishment of a trade in fungus, which was all

profit, costing nothing to produce and being chiefly collected by the children, it was the part played by the Chinese storekeeper in establishing the'factory system of butter manufacture for which he is principally remembered. In 1870 Chew Chong settled in New Plymouth and established a store, other stores being subsequently opened at Eltham and Inglewood. His main, sphere of activity

I was at Eltham, for it was there that he became-the pioneer of the dairy factory movement in the Taranaki province. In erecting a • dairy factory Chew Chong took a risky step, for it was a matter of great difficulty to procure a competent butter-maker,in those days. The refrigerator was unknown, control of temperature, an essential feature in the modern factory being thus impossible; separators were crude affairs, transport was difficult and costly, and the butter had to be shipped abroad as ordinary cargo. However, he was a ' man of exceptional enterprise, and having been approached by the settlers with whom he was doing business he entered into the work in a bold manner. Perhaps the best indication of the up-to-date nature of his enterprise may be gained from the following description of the factory given by the first Government dairy instructor in 1888:—'' Chew Chong's factory: This is one of the best factories I have visited. The machinery is good and in first-class condition, and'everything about it is thoroughly clean. The machinery is driven by a water-wheel. There are two Danish cream separators, each capable of putting through 150 gallons of milk per hour; one box churn capable of churning half a ton of butter at once, and a lever butter-worker. The water-wheel is inside the lower* part of the building. The butter when churned is taken to a space between the wheel and the outside wall to be made up. When the wheel is in motion it causes a current of cool air in the place, throwing at the same time a spray of water in the air, which assists to cool it in hot weather, a method invaluable for buttermaking. The building of a tunnel to bring the water to the wheel and plant cost over £700." .

It is told by old settlers, as an instance of Chew Chong_ versatility, that the contractors for the tunnel were on the point of throwing up the work, as they could make no progress, when Chew Chong went into the tunnel and showed them how to go about it. It was in 1887 that the factory established a notable period for the industry. Being the year of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, Chew Chong named his factory "The Jubilee" and registered the word "Jubilee" as the brand of his butter. It was a success from its initiation, notwithstanding the difficulties which had to be faced.

The first year suppliers could only be paid 2d a gallon for the milk, but the following year 3d a gallon was paid. The first shipment of factory butter realised 24s a cwt. more than did the milled butter shipped by Chew Chong at the same time. The cost of marketing was expensive in those days. Roads were bad, and railage freights were high. To rail butter to Wellington cost £3 4s per ton. The butter Chew Chong turned out was of high quality for the period, and he gained the leading awards at the South Seas Exhibition at Dunedin in 1889, including a silver cup

presented by Messrs. A. and T. Burt. The history of Chew Chong was that of many another proprietary pioneer in the industry. When the wave of co-operative dairying carried all before it he struggled gamely for a time, but finally had to close the doors of his factory and three creameries, having failed to persuade the co-operators to take them over, with the result that his buildings and plant, which cost £3700, did not realise £400. Chew Chong calculated that he lost £7000 in the dairying business, for during the last five years his factory was in existence he had to pay very high prices to retain suppliers. Though his" services have not attracted the attention of the outside world, there is not a man of long experience in Taranaki who does not hold him in high regard and honour him for the great part he played in the development of the province.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, 5 July 1923, Page 15

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SUB-LEASES. Application of B. J. Knuckey to sublet part section 50, block 11, Ngaire, to Chew Chong.— Agreed to. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 4014, 17 August 1898, Page 2

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CORRESPONDENCE.

HONOR TO-WHOM HI">NOR IS DUB

CEo tta* Editor. ) Sir, —There, is one import. *Nt feattl?® in connection with the dairying indt»-try in Taranaki that I nevei" seem to. hear any allusion to, and for* » great, number of years never mentioned ii* any of the New Zealand newspapers,, and that is the name of the pioneer hand of the present factory systexp — a Mr Chew Chong,, who (as far as 1 know, at any rate) had the first daily factory in Taranaki up at Eltham; ifc may have been the fust dairy factory in New Zealand. Mr Chong was not' only a pushing merchant, importer and storekeeper, having a business at New- Plymouth as weil as at Eitham, but showed his great faith in this dairying business by putting a lot of his money into it. and offering to lend suppliers the cash to buy cows with. I write from memory, of course, and would like* to see this statement refuted if it'a not correct. As I turn it over in my mind now, at this particular time* there was considerable bad feeling (I think it was really race hatred) around - this new Eltham factory of Mr Chong's. Some sneaky person or persons (I don't think they were any of Mr Ctong's* countrymen though) thought to. damage his factory, reputation and. business by working up a trumpery case of alleged fake weights at the factory. Inspector Duffin. Inspector of Weights ■ and Measures, New Plymouth, was sent for and came to Eltham. The butcome of the Inspector's visit was that Mr Chong came out with flying colors; he was actually cheating himself and paying out more than he ought to hi» milk suppliers—the farmers. Milk was purchased by weight in those days. The informers. were sadder men, anyway; perhaps sorry financially they made a complaint. •

I have made these statements off and on for a good many years now to old Taranaki residents, and have not had them so far contradicted. If I am misrepresenting in any way I shall regard it as a kindness to be contradicted. I only want to get the truth and to uphold it. I always regarded Mr Chew Chong as a splendid business man, a good pioneer, and a gentleman- Gladstone's statement contained a lot of truth in it when he once remarked that the "colonials disliked the Chinaman more for his virtues than hi» vices." I don't know if Mr Chew ChoTi£ is still alive or not, but I beg to offer one suggestion: it would only be an act of British, fair play and longdelayed courtesy to tender Mr Chew • Chonq; some practical appreciation of his pioneering services to the dairying, industry —say, at the coming Winter Show at Hawera. In writing what I have I am only prompted by the spirit of rendering HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE. Kakaramea, May 26. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, 28 May 1913, Page 5

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ELTHAM DAIRY FACTORY.

-> Settlers in the vicinity of Eltham will read with pleasure the notification made ia another column that Mr. Chew Changs dairy factory is now in operation, and that he is prepared to do business with them. The plant seems to be a very complete and useful one. The separators are imported from Denmark, and were made by Bermeister and Wains ; and are capable of pntting through 240 gals of milk per hour each. The motive power is obtained by an undershot waterwheel of 8-horse power, and the water is conducted to the wheel by a tunnel of 340 feet in length. Altogether the factory has been pronounced by competent men to be the most complete one on the coast. We congratulate Mr. Chew Chong on the completion of bis preparatioDS, and hope to hear of the factory being kept busily at work with advantage and profit to himself and the settlers generally.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1816, 29 December 1887, Page 2

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The Primitive Methodist Church held a social in the Mission Hall on Monday night and passed off most satisfactorily. Mr Chong's dairy factory is closed for the winter. The co-operative factory is to be stopped to place a new 8 horse power engine and boiler in position. A new separator is also to go in, so that if required butter can be made right through the summer. The directors have, however, rented Mr Chong's factory and will keep on receiving the milk there until the improvements are completed. Tbe suppliers have been paid at the rate of Is per lb for butter fat for morth ending 20th May and lid for month ending 20th June. This has given about 5d per gallon for the milk. This high price gave suppliers very handsome cheques for winter time, especially for the former month when some of the cheques were over £50. As a consequence some of the settlers are now declaring that winter dairying will pay and are putting in root crops on a large scale. An impetus has been given to cropping generally by the high price for potatoes and grain, and larger areas are being brought under the plough this year than usual. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 4005, 6 August 1898, Page 4

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Business Notice^ CHEW CHONG, STOREKEEPER, New Pltmoijth, Beanch Stohe Ikglewood, And he has just completed a third store at ELTHAM. The building is 40 feet long, and has a frontage of 37 feet, and 12 foot stud. Chew Chong is now prepared to supply the following goods at the lowest prices, Btrictly for cash, namely — Good White Sugar at 3f d per lb Good Box Tea, at 18s per box Local Flour, at 11s 6d per 100 Kerosene, at 15s 6d per case Rice, 2f d per lb Other lines, too numerous to men- | tion, at low prices, which will defy j competition. ! Also, a large assortment of Ladies', Men's, and Children's Clothing, Boots and Shoes always on hand. Ironmongery of all kinds. Four- Barb Wire, 35s per cwt. Plain Fencing Wire, from 15s per cwt. Crockeryware and Glassware Fancy Goods and Jewellery Persons living at the following places — Stratford, Ngaire, Midhirst, Normanby, and Hawera — purchasing a parcel over £3 will have their rail- way fare paid one way ; and over £4 will have their railway fare paid both ways, from this date to Ist January, 1885. Produce taken in exchange. 2£d per lb given for fungus. CHEW CHONG. New Plymouth, Dec. 12, 1884 Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume V, Issue 905, 6 January 1885, Page 4

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It was exactly 60 years on Tuesday since the late Mr, Chew Chong inaugurated the fungus trade in Taranaki. He had just arrived in New i Plymouth, and on August 30, 1871, advertised that he w.as prepared to buy fungus at six shillings per sack. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, 2 September 1921, Page 4