GOVERNMENT COLD STORAGE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7647, 12 February 1903, Page 3

GOVERNMENT COLD STORAGE.

Laudable Departure.

Boon fon Export Trade.

It has long beon regarded by leading producers and others that this colony will never establish its over-sea tradeparticularly in dairy produce—on a proper and most profitable basis imtil more regular shipments are made possible, not so much regular departures from the colony as regular arrivals on the London market. The drawback to this great principle being established is the want at present existing of centralisation in method of shipment. Home steamers have to dodge about from one end of the colony to the other, and visit small and dangerous ports or lay off in an open roadstead, whereas if the produce were centralised at one or two ports, say one in the North and one in the South Island, Home steamers could be loaded in a tenth of the. time, with less risk to the] produce by damage and deterioration, and the trade of the colony with the Old Country would be put on a level with its great competitors. In order to make concentration possible, however, big cold storage accommodation must be provided at the main shipping ports, so that the goods may be collected for the Home boats.

The Government has at last recognised the necessity of the storage being provided, and Mr Seddon expressed his opinion to that effect at Levin on Tuesday night. He advocated the establishment of cold stores not only in the colony but at Home, and better methods of distribution arranged. Last year, he cozitended, over £100,000 had been lost to the colony owing to the poor methods of handling New Zealand meat in vogue at the other end. If, he said, the Government made a departure in erecting cool stores, the work would be carried out on strictly business lines!