THE FREEZING INDUSTRY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 310, 30 September 1915, Page 4

THE FREEZING INDUSTRY.

A.N EXPERT'S V'^EWJ. (To the Editor). Sir, —Were it not for the fact that T am very keenly interested in thv? welfare of Taihape and district, and believe it to be one of the grandest districts in Now Zealand for sheep farming, and have been in the closest possible touch with the freezing industry from its successful inauguration in JSB2, I pboiild not take the trouble in this matter I am doing. Competition has reduced the freezing industry to a "fine art," and it is

only by scrupulous attention to details

'that our farmers can hope to get such returns from their sheep that it will pay them to loyally support cur own works. Let no farmer run away with the idea that we have only to build a freezing works to make fortunes. The .business is a very serious problem: it is imperative that every branch of the industry should b e made to do Lq very best, and the best brains in the district are required to look into everything, whether it bo freezing lambs, sheep and cattle, or looking af-.t r hides, pelts, wool, blood manart. canning, kidneys, fat, meat extract, and the detail of drafting and buy iug. or freezing on owner’s account; booking,. weighing, and a huge am mat of office work, which must be accurate, quick and complete; banking, shipping, railage, etc., etc., all of which details must be supervised, and requires almost thg same staff in a small works as in a large works, with this difference, that, perhaps, in the small works, there is a gross income of perhaps £SOO a day and in large works perhaps £3OOO a day, with a 20 per cent greater expenditure in a small works than in a .large one. With regard to skins: In the large buying factories all the wool is classed into large lines of even quality, and as sudh commands good prices, there being no star lots, but in '■ases where farmers freeze on their own account, five distinct courses are adapted: No. 1, an outside fellmonger mys the skins from the individual tunny.’ at a price arranged between the agent of the owner and the fellmonger; the fellmonger clases into big lines of wool and makes a fortune. No. 2: The factory buys the skin s and a telephone talk lik e this is carried on. —Factory: We have 210 of Jones’ skins, what are we to do, with them? Agent: What are they worth? —Factory: 3/6. —Agent: Will you give that? —Factory: Yes. This is most satisfactory to both agent and factory, the agent gets his 21 per cent, commission and the factory gets the skins at its own price. No. 3; The skins are sent to a wool store aad sold at public auction, competition, or no competition. No. 4; The skins are sorted by the factory into different qualities and conditions, then washed and sliped, and the wool dried, and each owner’s different parcels of wool weighed into different bins. From which, again, large lines' are shipped to England and sold, and command the highest wool prices for the farmer.because there are no star lots. The pelts are sorted and shipped in btfik lines; they also command good prices for the farmer. No. 5; A foolish way is ray idea! Each farmer’s pelts and wool are made up into a number of star lots, or boxed together into a few bales of mixed quality and sold in star lots, and do not command top prices.

Th e No. 4 scheme has been going at the Canterbury Freezing Meat Company’s factories since 1882, and as I have often heard said, "a little gold mine” to the farmer. Most of the leading wool men in other factories are old C.F.M. men, including the two leading men in the W.M.E. Co., in which company the factory buys most of the skins. In No. 4 scheme rough wool is kept with rough wool, and good clean i'ool i s kept with good clean wool, —I am, etc. MARMADUKE DIXON.