FIRST NEW ZEALAND VENTURE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 120, 15 February 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

FIRST NEW ZEALAND VENTURE

Pioneer Shipment of Frozen Meat

HISTORIC VOYAGE OF DUNEDIN

Success of a Bold Enterprise

Fifty years ago—on February 15, 1882— the little sailing-ship Dunedin sailed from Port Chalmers for London with the first cargo of frozen meat from New 'Zealand. It was a daring enterprise for a country whose population, numbered barely half a million, but its complete success well and truly laid the foundation of a trade which rapidly grew to an annual export of two million carcases ten years later, and pulled the colony out of the shoals of depression into calm waters of growing prosperity. The vast development of the refrigerated food export trade of New Zealand has taken place within the life-time of the present generation—there are still living in the Dominion some of the far-seeing men who assisted aPthc birth of the trade. Yet, in spite of the lowest prices realised for many years, the refrigerated shipments of the country last year were valued at very nearly £25,000,000 out of a total export trade of just over £35,000,000.

B. N 1851 there were 233,000 sheep in New Zealand, and by !Tj 1880 the docks had grown to KI over 11.000.000, owned by Ifl (1557 farmers. Realising the great need of an outlet for ©J the large surplus of sheep. jU and foreseeing the great possibilities of the frozen meat trade, already indicated by the first Australian trials. Mr. W. 8. Davidson, general manager of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company til Edie, burgh, after careful investigation of the position induced his directors to agree to a trial shipment from New Zealand.

During 1880 a contract was concluded whereby the Albion Shipping Company (which soon afterward merged into the Shaw. Savill and Albion Company) tigreed to lit up one of its best and fastest ships with insulated meat chambers, boilers, and Bell-Coleman refrigerating machinery, tlie Land Company undertaking to find a cargo of moat, up to 7500 sheep, if necessary. to till Hit' chambers find to pay a freight'of 2}d a lb. In support of this enterprise a Glasgow firm of insurance brokers agreed to accept whar was llien a totally unknown risk by covering all contingencies attaching to the carriage of meat at the moderate premium of five guineas per cent.

An Historic SUp.

The ship Dunedin. 1250 tons register, commanded by Captain Whitson, was selected for the great adventure. Mr. Davidson sent instructions to Mr. Thomas Brydone. the Land Company’s superintendent in New Zealand, to erect a killing shed on the Totara Estate, near Oamaru, to secure firstrate butchers, and in every way to prepare a cargo of the most attractive classes of sheep. Under the supervision of Mr. Coleman, of Bell and Coleman. the Dunedin was fitted out in Glasgow, witli his assurance that, if hard-frozen on board, the carcases would suffer no deterioration in a passage of 100 days or more, and that with thorough insulation and a proper system for the circulation of cold air. the carcases when frozen solid could be stored as closely its they could be packed in without risk of their being

crushed. Too much praise cannot be given to the extraordinary foresight and courage of those responsible for the carrying out of the venture, the failure of which might have thrown the industry back for years. The work of

loading tlie Dunedin was started at I’orl Chalmers on December 7, 1881. when Mr. Davidson and Mr. Brydoue personally stowed the first frozen sheep' ever loaded In New Zealand. Four days later, a mishap to the freezing machine stopped the work and compelled the sale of the (141 sheet! then iti the chamber and of the 3(10 killed and in transit. Thus New Zealanders themselves were the first consumers of their own frozen meat. Repairs were made, and tlie loading of the ship was completed on February 11, 1882. The Dunedin sailed on Feb ruary 15 on her historic voyage, and arrived at: London on May 24, after a passage of OS days. During all that time the refrigerating machinery worked well; at times in cool weather, it was run only two or three hours in the day.

Shipmaster's Anxieties. The anxiety as to the condition of the meat is described by Mr. Davidson, Mho had then returned to England. "Captain Whitson came on to London ahead of his ship'in a pilot boat, looking very strained and careworn as he entered the shipping company's office. . . . Ilis anxieties about the cargo had been aggravated by his dread that his

masts would be burnt, as the sparks from the funnel set fire to the sails on several occasions. Then, in the tropics the ship was for a long time on one tack, and owing to its steadiness the cold air was not sufficiently diffused among the carcases, and, in fact, the temperature in the upper chamber remained so high that the engineer was almost in despair.” Finally Captain Whitson crawled down the main trunk to alter the circulation, which was evidently defective, and in the process of cutting fresh openings for the better escape of the air he became so benumbed by the frost that he was only rescued from his perilous position by the mate crawling in behind him and at-

taching a rope to his legs, by which means he was pulled out of the air trunk. Thus, in a little sailing ship, was the first cargo of frozen meat safely carried across the Southern Pacific, round Cape Horn, and through the full length of the Atlantic, 12,000 miles to London. Though the sea journey of the Dunedin took three times as long as the present-day passages of the Dominion’s meat carriers, it was completely successful, and, considering the relatively primitive nature of the freezing plant and the then unknown factors to be contended with, a truly wonderful feat.

A First-clas Shipment. Of great interest is the official re-

_ port on this, the pioneer shipment of frozen meat from New Zealand, as follows: "The discharging of the cargo commenced three days after arrival, and the whole shipment was sold within a fortnight, the meat being taken out at night and conveyed to Smithfield market, so that the sheep were hard frozen when the butchers went to buy them in the morning. ... At first the salesmen were rather doubtful about the venture being a success, especially as it was the first trial from New Zealand, but when .they saw the fine big sheep which, though many of them had been frozen over four months, were as clean and bright as newly killed mutton, they quickly changed their opinion and pronounced the meat

to be ‘as perfect as meat could be.’ Excepting the very fat coarse sheep weighing over 1001 b each —several weighed over 1501 b, and one was 1821 b —the mutton was quite suitable for the English market. Out of the whole cargo only one sheep was condemned.” A "Prodigious Fact.” It is very interesting, in view of the recent development of the export trade in frozen pork, that the Dunedin’s shipment included 22 earcases of pork which realised £3l/2/11, an average of G.42d per lb. The cargo included 3521 sheep and 41!) lambs belonging to the Land Company, and 939 sheep supplied by outside shippers. Including the pork, the Land Company’s meat realised £BOO9/14/3. The mutton averaged G.sld per lb and the lamb G.45<1 per Hi. Slightly higher prices were olrtained for lamb sold in Glasgow, where the average was 7.60 d per lb. The charges against the shipment, including £2779/9/5 freight, totalled £3793/2/4, so that the net proceeds to the Land Company were £4216/11/11. The net return per sheep in Port Chalmers was £l/0/115, or 3.23 d per lb, and the net return per lamb there 10/9, or 3.25 d per ll>.

“It is calculated,” said the report, “that there will be a net return of fully 9d per sheep in New Zealand from sale of skins and tallow, after paying cost of killing and putting on board ship, so that the company has netted £l/1/85 for its sheep, averaging rather under 811 b. The loss in selling weight, as compared witli shipping weight, amounts to only a little over 11b on each carcase. The charges between Port Chalmers and London, including insurance and freight, amounted to 2.73 d per lb, and after the ship arrived in London 0.41 d per lb. The sheep sent Home would only have netted some 11/or 12/- per head in the Dunedin market at the time of shipping, so that their value was about doubled. The 939 sheep sent by other shippers sold at about the same prices as the company’s sheep. . . .” The other shippers were .Messrs. James Elder (Maheiio), J. H. Smith (Invercargill), Murray, and Co., and James Shand