Thomas Brydone

Press, 15 February 1982, Page 40

Thomas Brydone

Thomas Brydone. as well as carrying out the tremendous amount of work involved in following his company’s instructions for the first shipment of frozen meat, took an early interest in refrigeration. After the success of the Protos shipment from Melbourne in 1880, he made a trip to Melbourne to get information which was helpful when the New Zealand experiment was made. In an address to the stock conference in 1892, Brydone, speaking of the early days of refrigeration, said: “The new idea of freezing by the dry air system looked as if it were feasible and my com-

pany thought it worth spending some money in testing it. “No-one here knew anything about freezing, so I took a run over to Melbourne and obtained a few ‘wrinkles’ which were of use in the preparing and shipping of the first cargo that left these shores.”

Brydone was born in West Linton, Peebleshire, in 1837, and after schooling at Perth Academy, his first job was in the office of a commissioner appointed to inquire into means of lending money to landlords to improve their estates by drainage. He became land steward to the Earl of Buchan, at Roxburn, West Lothian, two years later, and then to the Duke of Hamilton. He spent some time as a travelling inspector for the West of England Land Company, and was factor to Lord Falmouth in Kent before returning to Roxburn, where oil had been discovered. He became a partner in Young's Paraffin Oil Company in 1866-67, but this venture was defeated by American competition. It was then that Brydone joined the newly-formed New Zealand and Australian Land Company, Ltd., with which he was to spend the rest of his working life. At that time the company was much smaller than it was when it entered the frozen meat

trade, for it was still to ' amalgamate with the other major land company in the South Island. He came to New Zealand < in 1868 as the company’s : - superintendent, a position he held after the amalgamation of the companies in 1877. “He t was well qualified to fill this, a position, especially after his ,t extensive experiences in con- S nexion with the estates in Southland, where there was such an adverse climate to deal with,” said his general manager (Mr W. S. Davidson) of him.

Brydone held the position until he went into semiretirement in 1900. four years before his death. Intensely practical in all things connected with the land, Brydone entered fully into the country’s agricultural and commercial life, and today a township in Southland bears his name, and another reminder of his work is Brydone Hall in Dunedin.

Brydone was the first man to lime the soil of Southland, and a pioneer in the use of artificial manures. His work in this field was of immense benefit to the company’s estates; and it showed the way to many other areas.

He also worked hard for the establishment of the freezing works at Burnside, of which he was a director.