BOILING-DOWN IN OTAGO,

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2565, 27 April 1870, Page 6

BOILING-DOWN IN OTAGO,

THE KAKA>'UI- ESTABLISHMENT.

Our special correspondent furnishes the following particulars regarding this establishment : —

The boiling-down place of the New Zealand Meat Preserving Company at the Kakanui is but the precursor of a large meat preserving establishment, the plant for which is now at hand. But it is so complete that it promises well for the further progress of the Company's opera ions. Nothing con d well be more business like or better arranged. The buildings are situated partly on a hill and partly on a flat close to the Maori ford, about a mile up from the entrance of the Kakanui. One of the first requisites was a large supply of water for cleansing purposes ; and to obtain this a weil twenty-five feet deep ■was sunk in the flat close to the boilinghouse with a drive of a'-out twenty-five feet from the bottom towards the river, which is about a hundred yards off. This gives an ample supply, which is raised to the required elevation by a powerful donkey engine supplied with steam from the principal boiler. At present the steaia required for boiling is raised in the boiler of one of the steam plough engines from Totara, belonging to the New Zealand and Australian. Land Company, | which with its large drum for coiling the ' •wire, is stationed outside the boilinghouse, and is a clumsy looking affair. This, however, is only a temporary arrangement. A large egg-ended boiler is now on the ground, and ready for fixing. It is capable of supplying steam to the extent of sixteen horse power. As will presently be seen, a great advantage is gained by having the different buildings at different elevations. The boiling-house, which is the last destination of the carcases, is on the flat on one side of the hill or ridge, while the piggeries—which are the last destination of the offal—are on the flat on. the other side, the killinghouse heing on the top of the ridge at an elevation of perhaps eighty feet between the two, so that there is good natural fall for drainage and delivery purposes. From the killing-house a tramway descends on each side of the ridge ; the one with a double line of rails to the upper story of the boiling-house, a large pulley wheel being so fixed that a wire rope passing round it serves to pull up the empty trucks by the descent of the full ones. So on the other side of the killing-house the trucks descend with the offal to the piggeries, and the pigs are fed from them by the expenditure of a very small amount of time and labour, half a man's time being quite aufficiei.it for the purpose. The donkey engine throws the water up from, the well into ten 400-gallon iron tanks raised on a stone foundation to a little elevation above the killing-house. These are kept always full, and a simple flexible pipe affords all that is necessary with the pressure obtained by the slight elevation referred to for cleansing every part of the building, as the stream can be in a moment directed wherever it is wanted with quite force enough for the purpose. The killing-house is a long shed with 'shingle roof and batten sides and floor, thus being open to a constant stream of air on every side. In fact, the draught is sometimes too great, as one of the men got deaf the other day by working in it. No doubt this can be regulated by shutters to open and close at pleasure. The shed is divided into three parts—the pen for the live sheep, capable of holding 500, the killing pens and platform, and the cooling place for the carcases. The .sheep are yarded in the shed over night, and in the morn-

ing the butchers take their stand in the killing pens, of which there are four across the shed—and letting the sheep in one by one knock them, on the head, and then pail them forward a few feet on the batten floor to the bleeding place, which is over a trough, and the blood at once runs down this trough or gutter to the regions below, where I will not at present follow it. The carcases are then hung up and skinned, and afterwards conveyed to the further end of the shed, where about 300 hooks are provided for hanging them to cool. Of course there is not the same need for care when boiling down is the object, but it v very necessary "when the meat has to be preserved, as no precaution can then be considered too minute which will tend to ensure the meat being in good condition for tinning. When the requisite number are killed, the carcases are loaded into the trucks on the tramway -which passes into the killing house, and the trucks are then lowered to the level of the top of the large • oiling vat or digester. This is a strong iron flat-ended boiler on end, with man-holes and strong iron doors and fastenings at top and bottom, and with several large cocks at different heights to draw off liquor from it. It holds three hundred carcases, which are quartered before they are put in. It has a false bottom, and a large Bteatn pipe descends through it to the false bottom, through which the steam descends, and rising again through the latter, fills the digester with high pressure steam. Of course the man-hole door 3 are first carefully secured, and the cock which communicates with the main boiler is then turned on. The pressure of steam used Is about twenty-eight to thirty pounds to the square inch. The carcases remain in the digester with full steam on, eight or ten hours. The building in which the digester is erected is of galvanised iron, and is tolerably spacious. (Descending near to the ground floor, which is on a level with the flat already described, we find two wooden coolers placed within a few feet of the digester—one of them about ten feet and the other eight feet from the ground, with wooden spouts to receive the tallow from the large cocks as soon as ready. These wooden spouts Lave wire gauze across them to keep out any solid impurities. The gravy or essence of the meat is run off by a spout into a separate tank, and the tallow raised or lowered to the required level of the discharge cocks by the admission of hot water from a tank, or by letting out ■water from the bottom. A little tallow, however, always escapes with the gravy, and is secured when the latter cools. Tempting as the word may sound], this " gravy'! soon becomes offensive ;it ferments the second day, and soon becomes quito putrid. It may be of use when fresh for feeding pigs, but for no other purpose apparently. When the tallow is in the coolers, it is worked about with rakes with holes in them, until all impurities sink to the bottom. The casks, which have been first covered and then steamed by means of the same steam pipe which feeds the donkey engine, are then filled with the tallow in a liquid

State, bub not very hot. The hot tallow is very scorching, and the coolers have to fee made tight by means of red lead. The works were not in operation when I was there, but the manager obligingly had one of the casks opened, and showed me some of the tallow; it was beautifully white and firm, and free from any offensive smell. It should command the highest price in the home market for mutton tallow.

The casks at present used are old hogsheads and quarter casks recoopered, but as it is found the carriage and coopering become pretty expensive, I believe it is the intention of the manager to make casks on the premises out of Kauri pine, as is being successfully done at Timaru at the Company's large establishment there. The charge for casks, coopering, and cartage to the shipping place will be for the present seventy shillings per ton, the charge for boiling down ninepence to tenpence per sheep, according to quantity ; the skin and tallow being delivered to the owner, the refuse disposed of by the Company. The solid refuse which comes out of the digester through a large manhole near, the bottom after the tallow is drawn off, consists of shreds of fibre j and bones so friable, that they can be crushed between the thumb and finger. A lump of this stuff, the product of .twelve hundred sheep, just boiled down, was shewn to me a short ! distance from the factory ; it seemed very small for the residuum of bo many sheep, and was very offensive. A mill is on the ground, and about to be erected to grind this up ; when it will make valuable bone dust manure. , Thus every product will, aa far as possible, be utilised, and a want which was likely to be soon severely felt by the farmers, viz., that of suitable manures at low, prices, will be met. Everything seemed remarkably clean about the buildings. I cannot tell how it might be when in full work, but from the methodical manner in which everything was carried out, I have no doubt the necessary disagreeables, -which without cleanliness would soon become an intolerable nuisance to the neighbourhood, will be reduced to a minimum.

Returning.to the top of the hill,.and again passing through the killing house, I descended on the other side of the hill by the tramway to the piggeries. They consist of a substantial enclosure, with stone walls about five feet high, about a chain square, the tramway passing close to one wall, against which were seven stone pens for breeding sows, the backs of tvhich formed the abutment for a roof to shelter the store pigs, all the rest of the space being open yard. At least three hundred pigs will be kept at the i establishment, and useful scavengers as they are, they are not a pleasant sight to look at, and will not, I should imagine, make the best of pork. However, let us hope they will pay when fat to boil down for their lard. We will draw & veil over their present habits and diet— always remembering, as Lord Palmerston said, that dirt is only another name for matter in a wrong place ; and I suppose garbage is not in a wrong place in a pigstye. The butchering is at present carried on by contract. The whole establishment, so far as its boiling-down capacities is concerned, can be worked by seven or eight men. The rate of wages I am not at liberiy to mention, but I inferred that if the establishment was in full work it would pay the proprietors a very good return for their outlay. The consumption of coal is about 15 cwt. a day with the present boiler, but will probably be less with the new one. Comfortable buildings are erected close by for the men—one for the married, and another for the single men ; and also a house for the manager. Unfortunately the place is not at full work, nor, as it appears, is it at present likely to be. Fat sheep are scarce in the district, and there seems a great difference of opinion as to the loss of tallow in driving them from a great distance. I infer from all that I can gather from different sources, that it-will take pretty good merino sheep to produce anything like fourteen pounds of tallow ; though I see at Timaru some are. said to have yielded as much as seventeen pounds. I believe old broken-mouthed ewes will not yield above eight or ten pounds on the average, and this at threepence halfpenny per pound for the tallow, and a shilling for the skin, their present value, would only bring out; two shillings and sixpence to three shillings each net, after paying for boiling down and not reckoning the cost of casks. Later in the year of course the skins would be worth more. However, a very little time will give us certainty on this point, and even if it proves no better than, this, boiling down is better than destroying the old sheep without any return, as must be the result on over stocked runs without it. Mr Tesche maker, whose boiling down place close by was employed on some old sheep from his station at Otematata (Waitaki), believed that the result would be rather better than the above, but the tallow had not then been properly weighed, and the data furnished could not b8 relied on as positively accurate.

The evila of the restriction imposed by the absurd scab regulations at the Waitaki are now apparent. Large numbers of good sheep could be crossed from the other side in good condition, andthe establishment was standing still for want of

them. But the Ordinance which requires that all sheep should be dipped before crossing is prohibitive, and the run-hol-ders on the other side of the Waitaki have consequently to travel their sheep many miles further to Timaru. It is true that Canterbury long maintained a similar regulation contrary to our wishes ; but now it is removed there is no reason why we should punish ourselves for her contumacy by keeping one of our most important industries unemployed. For not only is it an advantage to have a number of men employed in boiling down, and eventually in preserving meat, but the shipping of the produce, the fellmongering of the skins, &c, &c, ail tend to assist in the prosperity of an important district of the province. If there were any scab to be dreaded, or if the regulation in question were likely to be efficacious in preventing its spread if it were to break out, there would be some reason in it; but the best judges affirm

that neither the one nor the other is the

case, and it is high time the vexatious restriction was removed. If there ever

was a time when free trade in sheep was needed, it is now, when the utmost efforts which can be made will scarcely find an

outlet for the over supply.

The settlers

immediately adjacent to the Waitaki on the Canterbury side, have always shipped their wool through Oamaru, and obtained their supplies thence, and are really more connected with Otago than with Canterbury, which is an additional reason why they should receive consideration from our Provincial Council in the matter I have referred to. An attempt is being made to increase the net result of the boiling-down by disposing of the legs for human food—the price in Oamaru is 9d each, but there is not a large enough market there. One enterprising Hebrew speculator from Dun-

edin, I believe, offered 5d each for the

whole lot at the factory. They are rather " close cut," but still would afford a good dinner to hungry men.

Meat-preserving, however, is what we want. Boiling-down is but a temporary expedient or an auxiliary agency for getting rid of the culls of our flocks. Now really good sheep are worthy of a better fate, and I hope shortly to be able to chronicle the completion of the works for the preserving part of the business. The Christchureh Meat Preserving Company-

are now, I hearyin full work, and as this is entirely under different management from the New Zealand Meat Preserving Company's establishments, there will doubtless be competition as to which can produce the best results. Mr Moodie, the intelligont superintendent of the latter company's affairs in the colony, has shown so much aptitude thu3 far in carrying out the operations of the company in an economical and efficient manner, that there is good reason to expect that he will be I equally successful in his further takings. The heavy rains of Saturday and Sunday produced a flood in the Kakanui, which has again washed away the shingle at its mouth, and opened the entrance for vessels of considerable size. The Oamaru Creek also, with a little aid by shovelling some shingle away from its mouth, broke a wide channel for itself straight out to sea, and was to-day (Monday), still open. The water in the lagoon, which is to form the future dock, by this means was lowered five feet at low water. The dam which was put across the creek by the Corporation, at the expenditure of about sixty pounds, to prevent the creek turning round behind. the shingle bank and rushing down to the landing place, as it has frequently done, has stood perfectly, and the result has been the saving of a proposed expenditure of some twelve hundred pounds in securing the landing place from being washed away, a3 it has several times been in time u-f flood.

The Oamaru people are now in expectation of an immediate commencement of the dock. Mr M'Gregor, C.E., the Engineer to the Port Chalmers Dock, has been appoiated Engineer to the Trust, and is instructed to prepare plans and specifications at once. I hear that he has every hope of carrying the work to a successful issue. THE TAPANUT ESTABLISHMENT.

With regard to the Tapaaui Boiling-down and Meat-preserving Establishment, the Bruce Herald writes :—We gladly ascertain that boiling-down operations are now being conducted with spirit at Messrs Herbert, Smyth, and Co's establishment, Tapanui, and as a result about fifteen tons of tallow, and four tons of spiced mut: on, have been shipped by the Queen Bee from these works. We gladly learn that Mr James Smith, our former enterprising townsman, came forward at once as the first patroniser of the establishment with 1000 half-t-reds, from which he realised an average of 261hs to 301bs of tallow from each sheep, besides having the hind legs cured into hams, for export to Great Britain. Messrs D. M'Kellar and G-. Bell have also sent sheep for boiling down, but we regret to learn that in spite of the large number of sheep in the district, and the very low prices ruling, there seems to be an inherent disposition on the part of stock owners, against the boiling-down process of quitting with stock. We understand that the average yield of merinos is aboub 141bs of tallow, and of half-breds 301bs, io addition to the cure of the suitable portions of the carcases for home sbipment. We understand that Messrs Herbert, Smyth, and Co.'a charge for boiling down sheep is only one shilling per head, and they are further prepared to cure and preserve carcases at an exceedingly small figure, with a guarantee that if not found good upon their arrival in England, no charge whatever will be made. Curing operations are being carefully conducted by the process adopted in the Canterbury establishment. The mutton after being relieved of all bone, is rolled and spiced and then put into small barrels containing 2 cwt each, and tallow poured over it. Thus preserved, it is reported to arrive in the English market in excellent condition, and to meet with a ready sale at exceedingly satisfactory prices, considering.the present value of stock in this colony.