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page 3   The Chelsea Sugar Factory  **History** **Throughout most of the nineteenth century, all sugar products in New Zealand had to be imported; wishing to improve New Zealand's self-sufficiency, in 1882 the goverment offered a bounty to the first company to produce sugar locally. Already interested in business prospects in New Zealand, the sugar factory had investigated possible sites in New Zealand and purchased 160 acres (0.65 km2) of farm land in Birkenhead. This was later expanded to 450 acres (1.8 km2). ** 

**The site was ideal for a suger refinery: the Waitemata offered deep water close to shore for a port, there was plenty offresh water from Duck Creek, which ran through the the proptery, and there was plenty of land and timber for building uses. **


 *  The name "Chelsea" was on the site by the refinery's first customs officer, who named it after Chelsea in England, his home land.

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