A VISIT TO ONE OF THE CANTERBURY FREEZING WORKS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 114, 15 May 1890, Page 3

A VISIT TO ONE OF THE CANTERBURY FREEZING WORKS.

Through the courtesy of the Directors I have been permitted to make an exhaustive survey of the Islington Meat Freezing Works. As this industry is undoubtedly ' destined to play an important part in the future destiny of this colony, it may be of interest to some of my Nelson friends if I avail myself of the columns of the Evening Mail to record a few impressions received by the visit. By way of prelude I must say a word on the charming drive to the works. I had often heard in my Nelson home of the piotnreßque homes of the Ghristchurch merchants in the city suburbs, but my previous flying visits had not admitted of my getting far beyond the city boundaries. The miles of magnificent roads with their well trimmed living fences, and the tasteful mansions all along the route were conse« quently of the nature of a revelation to me. I ghall henceforth understand better the enthusiastic admiration with which visitors, from Governors downwards, are invariably charged on visiting the " City of the Plains." On arriving at the works I was at once taken in hand by the intelligent and most communicative manager Mr Thomas Watts. I had hardly stated to him what my object was, namely, to qualify myself by personal observation for conveying to the British public £ome clear ideas as to the modus operandi of an antipodean industry from which it was receiving so valuable an addition to its larder, when he commenced the flow of information which continued without intermission for four or five hours. From the flock of sheep waiting in blissful unconsciousness their doom in the outside pens, to the sacks of valuable manure into'which the most worthless portions were converted, I waß taken through the whole process. Those twenty or thirty sturdy butchers, with a rapidity which was almost startling gave the coup de grace, and in the twiukling of an eye one saw a flock -of sheep transformed into a row of spotlessly clean carcasses of mutton. In a spacious cooling chamber some two thousand of these were suspended from an elaborately adjusted system of iron work, Scarcely any handling seemed necessary, From the time when the butcher hung up his victim to the time when the arctic experience was due, it was only a matter of over-head railway, the suspending meohanism admitting of an easy eliding along to the desired spot. Then the mysterious freezing chamber! A heavy door was carefully unsealed, I was going to say, it was certainly something like opening a hermetically sealed ohamber, and I was invited to enter in. I had not been in many moments, however, before I looked anxiously to the closed door and prayed for light and warmth.- What an experience it was 1 I have been in many queer places in my somewhat eventful life. A couple of decades back I found myself in the " Uave of the Wind " at the bottom of the Falls of Niagara, and never expect to forget the thrilling sensations. But this freezing ohamber 1 The intense cold; the weird looking carcasses in their white Bhrouds; the appalling darkness; the seeming interminableness of the area; the entire novelty of the thing — well it was a clear addition to life's episodes. Next came the skin department. Half a score of smart workmen were stripping off the wool, and others were washing the same in a most ingeniously contrived series of hot water tanks. Sundry processes were then applied to the pelts, as the skins minus the wool are called, and in a few days they would be ready for ther final destination— the New York bookbinders among others, for the production of the superb " Russian :> binding which the American milllonai.es so generally affeot. This reminded me of another trade secret which the American Consul at Auckland let out some years ago. He told us that a 'cute Yankee had dis= covered the means of converting the down of rabbit skins into the most perfect imitation 01 the best furs. On the manipulation of the other portions of a sheep which go to the making up of what is known as the butcher's ' fifth quarter,' I will not enter, lest some portion of the unutterable odours should penetrate my sheets. Suffice it to say, that both as regards the sheep and the pigs, everything pertaining to them— save the unearthly squeal of the latter — is utilised. Now for a word respecting the no less interesting and important department known bb the canning department. Here tons of tid^bits, tongues, kidneys, and other dainties were being packed in ten cases, and in steam benches one saw hundreds of two, four, or six pound tins being cooked, the skilled operator watching the right moment for closing the small hole from whence the air was being expelled by the heat. In another direction the wooden cases were being made, with a rapidity which alone made one understand how they could be turned out; at to trifling a cost, namely, about 24s per gross for ciiies to take one dozen (61b) tins. I have not gone into details, as a pamphlet will probably be soon published giving these in full. My object is rather to awaken public interest in an industry which is full of promise. It is hardly too much to say that this Meat Freezing and Meat Preserving industry marks a distinct epoch in colonial history. As an enthusiastic emigrationist, I see in it the removal of every particle of the hesitation which I have within the last few years felt in recommending British farmers to come out to the colony, aud I regret Exceedingly that the Government is unable to Becond some vigorous efforts to induce that class of immigration which I had the honour of suggesting to the Hon Mr Richardson at Wellington lasfrweek. The Minister was with me entirely in the matter, but pleaded the antagonism of public opinion as an impediment to Governmental action. This seemed to me the most pitiable confession that ever a Minister had to make. Common sense points to increased population and increased capital as the supreme need of a colony with only a little over half a million of people, and with capabilities for supporting at least ten times that number. Mr Robert Low, before he was buried in a Peerage, once urged upon us the desirability of educating our future masters— the newlyenfranchised masses. The anti-immigration furore of our educated Demos makes me doubt the necessary efficiency of even education to teach sound political economy. What every intelligent visitor to New Zealand sees is a colony with splendid possibilities, starved for want of population. Vast- properties are held for speculative purposes which should be dotted over with industrious farmers, who would grow beef and mutton for these freezing works. With an increase of population of this kind — practical men with capital and business experience — the much bemoaned taxation would shrink into insignificance, and instead of going into hysterics over a few millions of indebtedness, the colony would be glad to avail itself of as much British capital as it could get. A. C. Christchurch, May 8, 1890.