A NEW LOCAL INDUSTRY.

Colonist, Volume XLIX, Issue 12014, 15 August 1907, Page 2

A NEW LOCAL INDUSTRY.

BOILING DOWN AND MANUKE

WORKS.

The establishment of the Municipal Abattoir, with the consequent inspection by a veterinary expert of all animals slaughtered, was a reform stop that has been fully justi-. fied during the seven* years that have elapsed since the Abbatoir was erected. * This was a hygen^c reform, and one in which Nelson led the way, but from a commercial point of view during the whole period of the working of the Abattoir, a shocking waste of most valuable products has been going on, accompanied, too, by an ever-present source of" disquietude. The waste was the disposal of the heads, hoofs, etc., of the animals slaughtered by burying in the paddocks adjacent to the Abattoir; and the disquietude arose from the possibility of some of the offal being used to feed pigs. The |by-products of slaughtering WJrks are so valuable for the manufacture of fertilisers that is is really extraordinary that hundreds of tons have been allowed to waste year after year when the demand for the manufactured article has been so great that orders could not always be filled.

Mr F. W. Fairey, of Fairey Bros., the well-known butchers, has taken in hand the manufacture of the Abattoir residuals into fertilisers, the process of which also yields oher valuable by-products, tallow, neat's foot oil, etc. Mr Fairey ha 3 made agreements with all, save one, of the butchers, whose animals are slaughtered at the Abattoir, to take all the residuals save the skin. Also he takes all condemned animals.

On Parker's road (leading from the Arinesbfobk-Rdcks Koad toward the golf links) Mr Fairey has a 33---acre section, with a building, in which he has placed a boilling-down and manure manufacturing plant. He has been fortunate in securing the services of 1 Mr Geo. Matthews as wjbrking manager. Mr Matthews has fhad large experience of the workj having for eight years been with -the New Zealand Meat Preserving Company, Tiniaru, engaged in similar work. Mr Matthews personally attended to the erection of the plant, which was manufactured at the Anchor Foundry, and ho speaks very highly of the faithful manner in which the plant has been constructed.

At present a 12 h.p. boiler supplies tb9 steam for a "digester" with a capacity to deal with one and a half tons of residuals at a time. In the digester a variety of residuals can be treated each in its own way. Tallow can be boiled down and extracted, afterwards being passed through purifiers, thence to casks for shipment to England; heads, offal, carcafis, etc, can be digested to the extent that bones, etc., can be crumbled away as easily as stale bread, this after going through a drying

and crushing process becomes "ferti- ' liser"; cow heels and trotters are treated separately the neatsfoot oil being saved in similar manner to the tallow, extraction ; with the digester, too, bones for conversion into pure bone meal are treated. At present provision has not been made for treating blood but when the works are properly going the necessary plant will be installed and the manures then produced will be pure bone meal pure blood, blood and bone, and fertiliser. A storage shed 120 feet long will be erected to hold stocks of manure, and we understand Messrs E. Buxton.and Co Ltu., will banrj^ nS wno l e output. A display 0$ the products will be made at the A.' and P. Show.

We should mention that certain portions of offal are treated at the Abattoir and shipped away for conversion into sausage skins, otherwise all the residuals go to the fertiliser works. We are informed that poultry raisers find the meaty portions of the matter taken from the digester valuable feed for the poultry.

Yesterday afternoon several town residents including a representative of this paper* inspected the plant, and best wishes were expressed for the success of Mr Fairey's venture, which already is providing work for four hands. $