There’s not much to know about this obscure one at all. It probably dates from the very early 60’s judging by the typeface and style. Was it a short lived product? Most likely.
The Waimate District in the South Island is a very productive agricultural area including dairy farming.
A telling piece of information – When the branch line was closed on 31 March 1966, Waimate became the first major town in New Zealand to lose its railway connection.
This was most probably the death knell for the Ward’s brand as transport may have made it difficult to sustain a quality product.
Train would have been the main and most efficient mode of moving goods- and the loss may have also made the business unviable by other forms of transport. That said, when you have no information to go on, the background story could be anything and I’ve turned up some pretty wild ones in my time.
This item was for sale on Trademe last week and The seller seems to remember buying this box at a swap meet in South Canterbury, To the north. I located a smallish concern named “New Zealand Dairies Limited” which are physically based in South Canterbury but have a Waimate postal address. I could be wrong but I am guessing that once upon a time they were probably the manufacturers of this product.
I faithfully recreated the graphic of the top and front of the carton. It was more the challenge than penny-pinching that inspired me; I wanted to see if I could achieve it and make it look real with little detail to work from. I’m very happy with the result.
longwhitekid 
Snowdrop icecream. My mother went to school with the owners daughters I believe their name was Comyns or Cummings.They were making icecream there in the depression through the 1930s MY MOTHER WHO IS STILL WITH US THOUGHT THERE WAS A TIE WITH TIP TOP. THE SHOP WAS TWO STORIED AND THE OWNERS LIVED IN THE TOP STORY 141 I THINK EAST STREET. IT BECAME A RESTAURANT AFTERWARDS THEN A SECOND HAND STORE.
Dave
davegillespie1@hotmail.com
Thanks for your comment Dave, I had not heard of that – I was under the impression a family named Bates had founded it, there’s more relative comments under that actual story. Perhaps it went further back than that. Not sure they had much to do with Tip-Top. The last people to own it were named King into the 1970s; there’s been no mention of General Foods buying them out, I thought they just wound the business down. However since Tip-Top tried to buy out everyone, and managed to successfully do that in the end – I would not be surprised if that was the case.