THE NEW ZEALAND REFRIGERATING COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2006, 4 August 1892, Page 22

THE NEW ZEALAND REFRIGERATING COMPANY.

THE CHAIHSIAN'S SPEECH.

We are unable to find room in this issue for the report of the meeting of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, held yesterday, but subjoined is the address of the chairman, Mr John Roberts, and the full report will appear next week : —

The Chaikmak said : For the first time in the history of this company the directors have to meet the shareholders with a balance sheet showing a loss, which amounts, as you will see in the accounts, to L 1917 7s 9d. As explained in the report, this is owing almost entirely to the purchase of sheep last autumn to fill freight engagements of the steamers Fifeshire and Elderslie, which purchases had unfortunately to be made when prices were high in this market and realised in London when frozen meat was exceptionally depressed You will recollect that we chartered those steamers several years ago in the interests of the trade generally, and that by doing so we succeeded in reducing the rate of freight on frozen mutton to a reasonable limit. We never had the slightest trouble in loading them till last year, and it is possible that We should have bad no trouble then had not a considerable proportion of the sheep we depended upon been purchased by Messrs Nelson Bros. (Limited), and slaughtered at their works at Milton. We had, however, no choice. We had to buy, or become liable for dead freight, involving a much heavier loss. We have still one voyage each of the Fifeshire, Nairnshire, and Elderslie before the charters run out ; but Messrs Turnbull, Martin, and Co., the managing owners, have, with their usual liberality, agreed that when sheep are scarce and dear we need only fill one-half the insulated space, so that the prospects of another loss are small. But altogether apart from the loss on the sheep purchases, you will observe that the result of the year's operations shows a loss caused by a lack of support from growers. At the beginning of the year we reduced the rate for freezing, &c. to Id per lb, trusting to get an increased number of sheep to put through, instead of which we experienced exactly the reverse. At Oamaru there was a falling off of 72,700 carcases, and in weight of 3,764,2981b, or about 1670 tons. Afc Burnside the decrease in number of carcases was 63,300, and in weight 3,561,0001b, or about 1580 tons ; so that the total shrinkage from both works was 136,000 carcases, weighing 3250 tons. J need not tell you that, in the case of works euch as ours, the profit depends greatly upon the machinery being kept constantly running,

and during the whole of the year just closed this was never the case. We had to work intermittently just when sheep offered, and as a natural consequence we made no profit. There can be no doubt that one explanation of this heavy decrease is that owing to the continued export of our breeding stock, in the shape of maiden ewes and ewe lambs, the supply of crossbred sheep suitable for fattening has been temporarily checked. This will soon remedy itself, and I hope to sco this suicidal practice gradually stopped all over the colony. The exceptionally fine season for grass and root crops no doubt contributed also towards shortening the supply to the works. In the Oainaru district the drought of the previous three years drove graziers to sending their sheep to the works whenever they had sufficient condition on them, and it was a most fortunate thing that the works were there, otherwise prices to the grower must have been ruinous. This season there has been so much grass, and the root crops have been so good, that the farmers have been obliged to hold their sheep to eat the feed, being unable to buy stores at almost any price. I trust that these exceptional disturbances of the market will soon be remedied, and that the works will be kept going as well as ever. I would, however, appeal to our farmers and graziers for better and more consistent support. Very few, I regret to say, make a regular practice of exporting a certain proportion of their fat stock, and yet those who do this usually get better returns than those who hang back altogether. If only the great majority of sheep farmers were to resolve to freeze a proportion of their fat stock they_ would ensure the works being kept fully going, and make a certainty of getting a good price for the balance they reserve for sale in the local market. I will now briefly refer to the negotiations Mr Brydone and I conducted about this time last year in London for the sale of the company's works to Messrs Nelson Bros. (Limited) as a going concern. lam sure that the shareholders as a body regret that the sale did not come off, and that if the offer were to be made now they would not hesitate to accept it. Mr Brydone and I were naturally disappointed to fiud that after all the trouble we took in arranging the business nothing came of it, more especially as I think that if the shareholders had entrusted us with the necessary powers we might have overcome £he difficulties which presented themselves. The apparently insuperable difficulty of having the whole pnyment made in cash might, I think, have beon got over by leasing the works at a rental sufficient to pay the usual dividend, and instalments of the purchase money could have been paid annually till the purchase was complete. Whilst we were in the old country Mr Brydone and I spent a good deal af time in inquiring into the new system of freezing by absorption, and we have collected a great deal of valuable information about ammonia aud carbonic anhydrid machines, which will prove very useful when the time comes for ordering new machinery. Ido not think that I need say anything more. There is little cause, in my opinion, tor any anxiety as to the future of the frozen meat trade in this colony owing to competition from Australia, provided that we are careful to see that only the best and primest mutton and lambs are exported. 1 feel sure that in no year since this company started work has the quality of the mutton dealt with by us been better than it has been this season. Every sheep is graded carefully, and carcases which are too gross or too light for the London market are rejected altogether. I fear that the same care is not exercised in other parts of the colony, aud that the good name of our mutton may suffer in consequence. This, in view of the large number of good merino carcases which we know are coming forward from Australia, is a most shortsighted and suicidal policy, aud it is the duty of everyone connected with our export trade to take a firm stand and to refuse absolutely to freeze any inferier mutton, whatever inducements may be offered. I move the adoption of the report.