MR E. J. GREENSTREET AND COLD STORAGE.

Evening Star, Issue 11454, 23 January 1901, Page 3

MR E. J. GREENSTREET AND COLD STORAGE.

STHE COOL CHAMBERS OF PRETORIA I ONCE MORE. i | INTOKE HIS AID. I i [Fkom Otjb Sfeciai Correspondent.] 1 \ LONDON, December 14. J | Yerily the whirligig of time has brought ] \ in its revenges in South Africa for Mr E. \ ;■; J. Greenstreet. He is once more refrige- ; | rating- expert for the " Transvaalsche Koe!- \ jj kamers Beperkt," which, being interpreted. I jj signifies the Transvaal Cool Chambers! |j Limited. It will be remembered that some 1 | three years ago Mr Greenstreet went to | IJSouth Africa for Weddel and Co., with a | Sview to facilitate the development of a trade | ||in Australasian produce there. Just at that j§ Stime the Transvaal authorities, perhaps with if >aan eye to future eventualities, were turning | ||tbeir attention to cold storage. " | J| Matters were in abeyance pending the | election, but as soon as Presi- | jldent Kruger Mas firmly installed in his old | he pushed through the Volksraaa a gghis scheme lor cool chambers at Johannes- | fflburg and Pretoria and a" receiving hulk or 1 Qstores at Durban or Delagoa Bay in the face 3 ||of the strongest opposition, fxoin the fanning 3 and other companies. Mr | IgKruger impressed upon the Assembly that, 3 gas dynamite had been the corner stone ol | i»the Constitution, so cold storage would be § |jone of the pillars to support the State's in- pt and that if the contract between 9 Stho syndicate (which eventually became tht | iSKoelkamers) and the Government were not i tgpassed there would bo famine in the land. | SEventually th e scheme was carried bv tht 1 Scascing vote of the chairman. The" Cool | Limited, was then formed with | »a apital of £25,000, backed up by a Go- | ijvernment loan of £85,000. | m Mr Greenstreet was able to expound to | Kruger and the members of the | jSsyndicate the refrigeration and cold storage | If system, and when the company wiis formed | ||he was appobted its refrigerating expert, g Sto design and supervise the erection of the i ;§ works -and their running for six months | |j after completion. The managing director, I * Mr S. Gillingham, and Mr Greenstreet came | * to Europe in 1898 to inspect refrigerating I 8 plant and call for tenders- Tenders were je iHreceived, and Mr Greenstreet recommended * Sthe acceptance of the lowest tender-, that S Moi the Hercules Company, whose machinery I »has gained such a high reputation in Aus-1 H traHia. Mr Giilingham, after instructing 5 |Mr Greenstreet to draw up plans for build-1 Sings, left at the end of ,the year for Tie-1 jStoria. Mr Greenstreet followed, having., as | deposited his plans with the koel-1 S kamier's agents, and obtained their ap-1 Sproval. On hi; arrival in Pretoria he was | xcurtly told that the directors Mere dissntis- I Slied with him, and dispensed with his ser-1 ||vices, the main cause of complaint against | tlhim being apparently his acceptance of the | aSHercules tender. It was, however, evident ? Jithat the Transvaal, obb'garchy, having suckec I ighis brains, thought that they could kick him I «out, and that he would bo powerless to ob- | Stain redress. Mr Greenstreet promptly re- | Sjt-ained ex-Chief Justice* Kotze, and com- | jHmenced an action against- the company. § gaction was ripe for trial when the war broke $ gout. Meanwhile Mr Greenstreet had beep | Scngaged by the De Beers Company to erect % Scold stores at Kimbcrley and Cape Town, the | SBritish company acceptbg the very Hercules S Hmachinery to which the Boers had raised \ fflsuch strong objections. The work on the § listores at Kimberlcy was carried out during | rathe siege, and last summer Mr Greenstrew I ■completed the Cape Town works and several * Mbutchere' shops for the De Beers Company, p a The work under Mr Greenstreet's successor 4 I in the Transvaal progressed unsatisfactorily, | I and the directors of the Koelkamers before | I long found themselves sorely in need of the | $ matured experience of the Antipodean ex- s | pert, whom they had so unceremoniously | Ijshunted. - | 'J Mr Greenstreet's next meeting with Mi 3 je Gillingham, the marKiging director, wa- f| when the latter was marched through Cape | «j Town, with 200 other British prisoners, by ;i 1 | guard of British soldiers en route for Ceylon, f. g Tho works at Pretoria and Johannesburg s a remained unfinished; and v at last the direclovt | * resolved j.o bog Mr GreonSt-reet to finish the I | works which they had not allow ed him to be-1 | gin. Negotiations with his friend Mr Pal- | 1 mer, as intermediary, resulted la-st month in I |j tho signing of nn agreement between Mr f 1 Greenstreet and the directors of the Koel- | %i kamers and Major Armstrong, the Assi.s1% tant Financial Adviser to Lord Roba - te, re-1 M presenting the interest of the late Trans-1 g vaal Government in the scheme, which h;is | S now been taken over by the British Govern- f S inent. Mr Greenstreet waives all claims | w against- the company, and is employed on | S very satisfacton- Verms to complete the tj at Prctorii, and probably m burg, a.s soon as the machinery, which is now % S laying at Durban, be got together. | S Mr Greenstreet. has large additions to [he ? & Cape Town works and other important | S work still in hand for the De Beers Com-1 * I'.iuy, but Mr Cecil Rhodes and the Do | igßeers Compii.ny, realising that the work in | is now practically for the benefit | figof tho military authorities, who axe anxious | complete the stores as rapidly as possible | pflin order to get in meal to feed the troops, not jS ffionly readily consented to Mr Greenstreet p Staking up the Pretoria work in addition to * ESthat. for the De lieers Company, but a fgmitted Mr F. E. Greenstreet to leave their and settle ut Pretoria to supervise $ erection of Uie machinery there during s Mjhis brother's absence at Cape Town, his | § |fl Tho Messrs Greenstreet and Mr Palmer |s jliwere, in the middle of November, at Dur- aj fflbau making arrangements to take men and 5? fßinachinei-y to Pretoria, and expected to leave | jsgfor Pretoria before the eud of the month. S Wa The Koelkamere are to bo congratulated | raon their wise decision, and Mr Greenstreet| ||seems likely now to spread the cold in Africa as widely as he hiis already a Kdouc in Australasia. The market in Souths BBAfrica for perishable Australasian-produce is 3 Win consequence bound to extend enormously. S la As tho British Government now st.and 3 rain the shoes of that of the late South Afri-1 Hgean Republic, it may be interesting to re-1 the chief points in the agree-1 foment between the latter and the Koel-2 rakamers, made in March, 1898. 1 Wi The Government undertook to loud the $ jfflcompany £85,000 as working ' capital, to| m\ie repaid with interest at 4"per cent, within! jgjtwenty-iive years. This loan was to be se-1 fficured by a special bond on all the company's I BSanuually to form a sinking fund for the re- a pfpaymeut of the loan. Of the six directors I |||of the company, the Government were to | three, without whose unanimous I §|eonsent no loans could be raised on the £ properties, and no amalgamation,® of the company, or changes 'ifof its name could take place. (§ s3' The company, in .return, undertook tola Kgcrect within two years from the date ofjs f'|jthe agreement stores at Pretoria to holdl M 5,000 carcasses of cattle, and stores at Jo-S to hold 2.1)00, and to keepa always in store a supply equal to 500 head* of cattle or 2.000 sheep.* The Government!! were to give the company tho preference the supply of any meat required by the-pj Government, if the company's price and| terms were equal to those of the lowest ac-[I ceptable tender. The maximum price fori which any beef or mutton imported across p the sea was to be sold to the Government ?| und the public was sixpence a pound, de- H livered at the depots at Pretoria and Johan-1 lesburg, Customs dnes excluded. The 1 jjgmaximum price of local meat at the depots $ | was to be sixpence per pound for beef andf! | cightpence per pound for mutton a.s lon"j| S as the then prices for cattle and sheep pre° | | vailed. If the latter prices increased, the fl g company could raise their price proportion- m 1 atcl y- m | In the event of famine or war, the Go-xf a vernment were to have a preferential rights? 8 to all the necessaries of life in the stores 1 ?* | of the company, and the company were bound % J to carry out "instructions, S receiving compensation from the latter. ' % \ ITie company also undertook, if ' by the Government, to tin meat to fupp]y£» aaistrrcts lacking cold storage, the charg'e|Bi for such tins to be the cost price of the pre-|? serving, plus a pio&t «£ & £gs g