THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1165, 29 June 1894, Page 5

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

HANDLING THE CARCASE < IN LONDON.—TRICKKRY IN THft RE TAIL TRADE. The expansion of the export trade in frozen meat, and its anticipated effects upon the local prices for stock, are absorbing topics of discussion among pastoralistß in all the Australian colonies With a view to keeping their readers au courant with every feature of the trado a representative of the Austrct" lian Pastoralists' Review waited upon Mr E. J. Greenstreet, the engineer who planned and supervised the erection of many of the New Zealand freezing works, and who has just returned to Sydney after a trip to England extend ing over eight months. In answer to inquiries, Mr Greenstreet stated that his object in visiting the Old Country was to see for himself what improvements had been made in machinery, appliances for stores, adaptability of buildings and the progress of the industry generally. Asked as to whether he had noticed any improvement in taking delivery of the meat from the ship, Mr Greenstreet replied: —■ " Oh, very great. I will illustrate this by telling you about Nelson Bros.' stores on the South side of the Thames, between Blackfriars' Bridge and Waterloo Bridge. Theae stores have been erected within about eighteen months A small canal has been cut through

the Thames bank into the stores so as ' to allow barges to go right iu. The frozen meat is put into these barges at the ship's sMe and is immediately conveyed to the stores If there be several barges some are discharged on the bank and some inside the store ; but in no case are the carcases placed in the lower cold storage rooms first. The stores are, say, five or six stories high, and the top floor is one largo open space in which there are many trollies. You have seen water raised by means of a number of cups on an endless chain or chains. Well, instead of chains they have endless broad belting, running obliquely down from the top floor to the ground floor where the barge is, or to the platform on the bank; and instead of cups, there are .bars across the belting. As the machinery revolves this belting a carcase is placed on each bar, and is taken delivery of on the top floor when it reaches there. The carcases are placed on trollies and are conveyed to lift?, and so are lowered to any floor, as may be arranged. The reason of this system is because it is founch to act as a preventive to the admission of warm air into the cold storage-rooms. If you were to open the doors of the lower rooms there would be a rush of warm air into them ; but by the descent of the lifts the air is rather compressed than otherwise. They use chiefly the De la Vergne patent ammonia compressing machinery for producing cold air. I also visited the Blackfriars Company's cold stores. There the car cases are not taken to the top of the building, but in other respects the system is similar to that at Nelson Bros., the meat being conveyed in barges from the ship. Then I went to the docks and saw the meat being discharged into the cold stores there." " How is the meat distributed from those stores 1' " It is despatched generally at night, or early in the morning, to tho markets, or elsewhere, by means of waggons." "Is Australian meat growing in favour ?*' " I was at Home some eight years ago, and I noticed that whereas very few people I met knew anything about frozen meat then, nearly everybody is cognisant of it now. In the large provincial towns now most people know something about Australian or New Zealand mutton." " What about the deception practised by retailers ?" " I have hoard of cases of misrepresentation Here is rather an amusing one. I was dining one day at a friend's when the head of the family told me that not long previously a leg of mutton, represented as English mat ton, was purchased When being carved, a small bone tablet, which had been secreted in the flesh, was brought to light. On this was written something to this effect:—'The consumer is requested to communicate to the undersigned the following information : Where this meat was purchased and the price paid for it' The mutton was from New Zealand !" '* Did you see any new inventions in the way of freezing machinery V " I went to Derby and spent some time in the works of the Haslam Foundry and Engineering Company, which had lately been incorporated with Pontifex and Wood. They now make the Haslam Cold Air machines, the De la Vergne and the Ammonia Absorption machines. I also saw the latest of J. and E. Hall's Carboric Anhydride and the Linde British Refrigerating Company's machines. lam not connected in any way with either of the makers, and my impression is that the tendency of each id rather to improve existing types than to invent new ones."