REFRIGERATION PROCESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20425, 29 November 1929, Page 12

REFRIGERATION PROCESS.

Refrigeration engineers from all over New Zealand are gathered in conference at Wellington. Welcoming them, the chairman of the Meat Board, which convenes the gathering, referred to the research work now in progress, much of which, it may be added, is being directly financed by the Empire Marketing Board. This is of great importance to New Zealand. The whole subject of refrigeration is. Nobody with any knowledge of the economic history of the Dominion can fail to realise the tremendous effect the coming of cold storage, and especially of refrigerated transport, had on its destinies. Without it, where would the dairying industry be, and where would the trade in frozen meat, especially in the fat lambs, for which New Zealand is justly famous, be? It is hopeless even to speculate on the probable lines development would have taken had the freezing process not appeared just when it did. Under its beneficent influence wonderful things have happened. Districts which once were simply vast sheep runs, with wool the only product of real consequence, have been transformed into areas of comparatively small holdings, with a further concentration of people by no means impossible. Dairy produce and meat have made the subdivision and closer settlement possible, refrigeration made an export trade in those commodities possible. Because so much has been done under existing technique, and with the present state of knowledge, it does not follow that there is no room for improvement. A complete scientific survey of the transport of New Zealand meat in insulated holds, following its course from the works to Smithfield market, is under way. In addition, the effort to discover new data is never relaxed at the Cambridge Low Temperature Research Station, where the work is subsidised by the Empire Marketing Board. In these circumstances new discoveries of profound; influence are always possible, but a gradual improvement in technique is virtually assured. New Zealand stands to gain greatly, because, all important though the freezing process as known now may be, an advance may help in competition with rival countries which do not suffer the handicap of such distance as separates these shores from the principal market for their products. y