THE PATEA MEAT WORKS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1925, 9 May 1888, Page 2

THE PATEA MEAT WORKS.

(By our Special Reporter )

Hearing that the above works were in full working order, and that large quantities of beef and mutton were being put throueh the establishment, it was thought that a description of the factory would prove interesting to settlers throughout the district. Graziers desire to know what kind of a local outlet they will have for their fat stock, and whether the works recently established at Patea are likely to take the place of the Waitara works, which were deemantled a few months ago. Those who do not care to study the particulars set forth below, will be pleased to learn that' the opinion of all those who have been over the works, so far as I could learn, agrees with that formed by me, after a good look through the establishment, i c. that the buildings are well-planned and so arranged that there shall be no waste of time or labor in carrying the meat forward from one stage to another. There has certainly been no extravagance in buildings or in fixings. In fact, some of the surroundings will bear a little improvement so soon as time and funds permit. But I believe that any visitor to the works will be struck t>v the work-

manlike air which pervades throughout. The men employed are for the most part engaged at piece or contract work, and the rapidity which with the various operations are carried out prove that a good man appreciates being paid by results.

THE WESTERN PACKING AND CAMMING

COMPANY, PATEA, NEW ZEALAND,

The above is the full title of the factory now carried on by Mr. Oldham, a little more than a mile from the town of Patea. They are situated on the south bank of the river on an alluvial flat immediately under the terraces, which rise some forty feet above and behind the yards. Several strong springs of good water rise on the upper flats, these are collected in a couple of pipes and are led through the buildings with a considerable pressure at command. There is a good tall from the buildings to the river below, and as the waste water leaves the slaughtering floors it is led off through the piggeries and into the river some distance below the works, with ample fail to clear all refuse away, if the drains are looked to occasionally. The main building covers 100 feet x 46 feet, it is lofty and well ventilated. The stock to be slaughterd are driven in at the rear of the building under the steep cliff of the terraces. An excellent well paved stock-yard has just been completed, and will add greatly to the convenienco for working the business. A strong, closely boarded race leads from the yard to a killing pen, enclosed by double-folding gates on the floor of the main building itself. The slaughter men, who pith the bullocks, stand on planks well above the cattle, and so soon as the animals have been thus disabled the gates can be thrown right back against the walls of the building, and no one would suspect that they bad been penned in on the floor of the house a few minutes previously. One advantage gained by this method is that the heavy carcases of the beeves have never to be moved except on to the gambrells. The butchers also have ample room to work round each carcase with&ut hampering one another. During my visit, sheep were being dressed; about fifty were brought into the pens. A lad legged them out, and a " fall " of ten for each butcher was taken, They are killed after the Jewish system, the throat being cut right across with one stroke of the knife. The body of the sheep rests on a grated platform, a few inches above the main floor, so that the blood drains well out of the meat; and the main floor also has openings into a large drain below, through which a constant stream of water passes, clearing all before it. By the time the last sheep of the fall has been bled, the first one has breathed his last. In less than five minutes the carcase of the first sheep is clean dressed, and hung upon the gambrel, ready for the butchers' shop or for the knife of the cutter-up and boner. The carcases of beef hang on gambrels arranged so as to slide down over-head tramways from the slaughter pen to the cutting-up table. One man can, with ease, run the carcase of a heavy bullock along this tramway. There are no wheels to get out of order, and the only difference between these and the ordinary gambrels is that there are a couple of iron pins, one at each end of the gambrel, which act as stops and keep the gambrel from running off the slides. To come back to our " muttons." Within easy reach of the butchers, stands the table where the tallow is stiupped off the entrails, and the latter are run off to the pigs, to make " prime dairyfed pork," and to the harpstring maker at the back. The latter selects what he requires, cleans and salts the same. It is a savoury occupation, and one to be observed irotn a respectful distance, except the observer should have a timely cold in his head. At the time of our visit, fat sheep from Mr. E.O. Hendy's farm, Okaiawa, were being turned into mutton at the rate of from 170 to 200 per day, only two slaughtermen being employed, and the carcases as they left the butchers' hands were clean and neatly dressed, far more so, in fact, than those dressed by the average " station " or farm hand. After the carcases have cooled, they are taken in hand by the boners and cutters-up. Mr. Oldharu is sending away from three to six 5-ton truck loads of prime meat per week ; some to Wellington, Palmerston, and some even to Hawera. The trade is a growing one, and I was shown a telegram promising a new contract for further supply to a Wellington firm, which will be entered upon shortly. In connection with this contract with Wellington, and the railway treightage to that town, it may not be out of place to mention that a railway siding from the canning works to the railway station could be got at an easy grade and low cost. But compensation for loss of frontage to a mud flat has been demanded from the railway department by the tenant of the harbor lease hold adjoining, and that demand has stood in the way of the concession being granted by the department. I fancy that it would be quite safe for the Government to take the land required under the Public Works Act. All the compensation for the mud flat frontage which the tenant on a short lease would get, from an impartial arbrtrator would probably not exceed a .£5 note. As the road to the works is now bad and cartage of meat, tallow, &c, must be heavy, unless a siding is granted, broken metal will be needed to keep the roadway in a fairly passable state. The meat company are having some stone broken now in order to improve the road near the works. The road board might, in consideration of the value of the works to the district as a whole, vote a sum for metalling the rest of the road to the railway station. I have now followed the prime joints of the stock slaughtered for intercolonial consumption through the works, to their destination. But the greater portion of the meat disposed of is canned in more than forty forms, including many different sorts of fancy meat which are packed according to demand and requirements. The process is an interesting one. It is surprising how quickly the meat is trimmed off the bones, the surplus fat put on one side, and the pieces required for tinning neatly fitted into 61b., 41b., 21b., and lib. cans. Each can is steamed before the meat is put into the cans to cook. Ordinary

cases contain 12, 24, and- 48 cans according to the weight of each tin. Bat for Admiralty purposes six 61b and eight 61b tins are packed in each case. The cans, when filled, are covei'ed with close-fitting convex lids. In the centre of each lid a small vent hole is left, and the cans are then transferred to large circular vats, where they are heated by steam, and cooked thoroughly. When the cooking is completed, the steam vent hole is closed with a single drop of solder, and, as the contents cool and the steam condenses, the atmospheric pressure causes the convex lid to cave in and become concave. On coming out of the steam bath, the cans are cleaned, and are then stored for a while to ascertain how many, if any, are defective. The smallest pin hole through the solder or the tin plate quickly spoils the best meat. Very minute leaks would not 6bow for some time. In order, therefore, to hasten the generation of gase3 within such defective tins, a warm bath is provided, where all tins are tested before they are painted and labelled. In this bath a defective tin quickly bulges, and discloses the fact that the air has been imperfectly excluded. The cans are manufactured on the premises. The can-making machinery is simple and rapid in its action. But, as a new and improved plant of canning machinery is now on its way from the United States,and has reached Auckland, it is unnecessary to describe that now in use. The tins are painted with a quickdrying handsome blue metal varnish imported from the United States. The cans are then ready for an elaborate, many-colored label, embellished with a view of Mt. Eg in on t in the background, and a party of flax-clad aboriginals in the foreground ; the tins thus labelled and the good quality of their contents are already well-known to many of our readers. From the stockyards to the painting room, convenience for handling and economy of labor has evidently been well-studied : from the time the carcase leaves the shambles until the canned meat is ready for consignment from the premises, it is passed on from hand to hand step by step, so that at each process it travels a few feet nearer to the raised door of the building from which it is loaded on to the carts for the railway station. On one side of the canning factory, a large boiling down building haß been erected. A short tramway between the two carries truck-loads of suet, rough fat, and marrow bones to thiß building Three large vats, with a considerable boiling-down capacity, are in full swing. The largest of the three vats is said to be the biggest on this coast. In this case also care has been taken to have the levels so arranged that full advantage is taken of the fall to the river below so that refuse can easily pass away. The melted tallow is forced up from the vats by steam into the purifier, and runs from it into a cooler, and from the latter into casks, by gravitation. A four-horse boiler does the work, but one of greater power has been ordered. The casks are made on the premises, the staves being sawn out by steam, to the exact guage and shape required, at one operation. Coopering was going on busily when I was present. Mr. Oldham stated that he had already experienced some difficulty in getting sufficient supplies of fat stock to keep him in full work. The thirty hands now employed could, if called on, put through a little more than they are now doing. Up to the present he has put through considerably more than the quantity of stock guaranteed to the committee in charge of the bonus promised to the company on condition that a specified quantity of stock should be put through. Mr. Oldham has contracts with the Admiralty to supply canned meat at Sydney, and with the French Government to supply convicts at Noumea with a considerable quantity of tinned meats. At prices now ruling for canned meat in London there is no margin for profit. Canned meat has been sold as low as 3£d to 4d per lb, each lb of tinned meat representing 2lb of carcase meat. The day previous to my visit, 15 head of cattle, 79 sheep, and 4 pigs had been dealt with, and on the day of my visit from 170 to 200 sheep would prob.ibly be put through. Mr. Oldham informed me that he had completed arrangements to freeze in Wellington and ship on his own or on settlers' account prime joints of beef, Mr. Oldham taking the forequarters and inferior joints over to tin or boil down at the factory ad a fixed price. He complains that the price of fat sheep now is higher than he anticipated. He has paid from 5s 6d to 15s per head for fat sheep since he started, and the cheapest sheep left the least profit. The 15s was paid to Mr. Pearce. Mr. Oldham proposes also to tin butter for export, fnctory make of course. He now has a separator on hand, which he would erect on shares with any settler having a dairy of 30 cows or thereabouts. I found Mr. Oldham willing to answer almost any questiou which suggested itself to an inlerviewer who was anxious to give full information to an inquiring and interested public, and I take this opportunity of thanking him for a peasant visit and a hospitable reception.

FELLMONGERY.

On leaving the works Mr. Oldham informed me that Messrs. Bowron, a wellKnown Christchurch firm of fellmongers, had entered into a contract with him to take all his sheepskins at a certain rate, and to " slipe " them at Patea. Mr. Orange, a representative of the firm, was duly introduced, and informed me that he had only left Christchurch at the beginning of the week, and that he had leased the old Green Island works, and was expecting the necessary machinery in a few days. He understood that the sheep in this district were mostly longwools. The firm he represented desired to extend their trade in pelts, and the large breeds of sheep were most suitable for that business. He did not think the water supply at Patea was sufficient to warrant much wool-scouring being done. They would most likely slipe the wool by anew process. The 6kina would not be sweated, and there were no bad smells in connection with the business as they proposed to conduct it. He hoped to enter into contracts with sheep farmers to take all their sheepskins from them during the year. The only doubt he had was whether there would be enough skins offering to keep the fellmongery in full work. If he could get 2000 skins a week he would employ a good many hands. He proposed to take a run up to Hawera and through the rest of the district io a few days, and would then be better able to form an idea of what chance there was to establish a large business. :

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Hollo-way's Ointment and Pillb.-« Coughs, Influenza. — The soothing properties of these medicaments render them well worthy of trial in all diseases of the respiratory organs. >'s In common colds and influenza the Pills, "taken internally, and the Ointment rubbed over the chest and throat, are exceedingly efficacious. When inHucnza is epidemic, this treatment is the e.isicsti <r safest, and surest.'^- Hollowayfa ['ills purify the blood, remoro all obstacles fco its fret? circulation through the lungs, relievo the over-gorged air tubes, andrendjr respiration free, witHont reducing the strength, irritating the nerves, or depressing the spirits ; such are the ready means )f saving sulYurintj when anyone is afflicted vith colds. foii','!i«i. bronchitis, and other •host complaint.--, liy vhtuh so many persona .re seriously an<{ oermanently afflicted in