Waitara Freezing Works.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 12809, 17 March 1905, Page 3

Waitara Freezing Works.

THE NEW PREMISES. MODERN METHODS AND COMPLETE ORGANISATION. That such a concern as freezingworks at Waitara exists is no doubt a fact known to every adult as well as to every school boy in the district, as also must be the knowledge that its existence is responsible for the encouragement and advancement of the frozen meat industry and the circulation of a good round sum ol ready cash in this neighbourhood. But how many people have an accurate idea of the benefit accruing to the district by the establishment and successful carrying on of the works ? Also the enterprise shown by the proprietors in erecting up-to-date premises to take the place of those destroyed by lire some time since, the extent of the operations and the general system of freezing ? With a view to furnishing readers with information on these points, a Herald representative recently paid a visit to the works, and was kindly shown over them by 31 r Gray, manager. YARDING AND CATTLE RACES. The first business is the yarding of tho stock brought along for conversion into ready cash. Ample accommodation is provided for the purpose, ana so studied and arranged as to make tho yards convenient to work both from the railway line and the works. At present men arc engaged building a railway siding right up against the yards, and this will enable stock sent I by rail to be secured in the receiving yard direct from the truck. The trouble occasioned and energy spent in driving frightened and sometimes infuriated beasts along and amongst new surroundings, which perhaps accelerate j the vagaries of the animals, will thus be obviated. To those who have to handle tho stock between tne trucks and the yards this arrangement wili be a "joy for ever." Separate yards, substantially built, with solid stone i flooring and kept refreshingly free from nuisances, are provided for the bullocks and sheop. In the case ol owners having stock dealt with on their behalf spare enclosures are available and every precaution is exercised to keep the stock entirely apart and prevent subsequent wrangling and dis: pute, or mistake. In addition, the proprietors have a section containing from 50 to 60 acres of land where they lodge bullocks when purchased in large mobs and from which enough for the day's work is selected every day and driven to the yards. The next t hing is to get the animals intended for despatch to the slaughter-hoxise, which is situate on the top floor of the building. Two races, separate for the bullocks and tho sheep, with a steady gradient, constitute the connecting link between the yards and the works over a distance of some fifty yards. It is comparatively easy to persuade the shoop up the race and to their doom, but not so the bullocks, which give the men a lively lot of work at times. Foreseeing this, the management has had the cattle-race furnished with easily-lifting doors about seven yards apart and seven in number. When the troublesome beast has, after considerable exertion and perhaps exasperation on the part of the workman, been coaxed past the first door the structure is promptly lowered and the animal's retreat effectively debarred. By these gradual stages the bullock is eventually secured in the slaughtering room with the expenditure of less energy and labour than v. ould otherwise be the case. SLAUGHTERING ROOM. The interior of the slaughteringroom — 120 ft x 36ft— has the appearance, and is in reality, an arena of terrible carnage, but the visitor is hardly impressed in that way when it is realised that the slaughtering of the animals is essential and is carried out with the greatest expedition and least possible suffering to the beasts. The spectacle is far from pleasant at first sight, but in course of time it produces in the average person a feeling of quiet indifference to the surroundings. One 2->ortion of the room is devoted to the treatment of sheep. There is a row of seven pens, all filled with sheep and replenished as required, with a butcher working in front of each one. By means of sliding doors access to the pens is rendered easy. As the animals are despatched their heads arc placed on a grating covering a drain into which the blood flows and is carried away by water. The men are all the time skilfully removing the skins, and offal, and dressing, and this material is thrown into separate shoots, located at the ftide, of each butcher, and is lodged in the offal board on the floor immediately below. The skins, offal and fat are kept entirely apart in the separate shoots, while portion of the animals, such as livers, heads and tongues, are carefully put on one side for dressing and preparation. Sheep after sheep is thus being handled in rapid succession, and it is estimated that one man can put through with comfort 120 sheep a day, the aggregate at the present time being, roughly, over 600 a day. Hanging on hooks which run on overhead rails the dressed carcases, when ready, arc handed ovei- to the trimmer, who is responsible for the finishing touches in the dressing, and then the carcase is transferred from the branch linos, as it were, which are erected for convenient working alongside the platform of each butcher, on to the main lino of rails. This continuity of tails is a saving of time and labour, and the carcases are not once required to be lifted. The slaughtering of the bullocks is carried out on almost identically the same lines. The pens (two) in which the actual killing takes place are stoutly built, and the sides arc sheeted with iron. Pithing is the system adopted, and with an experienced and skilful pither death is very sudden. Large drains carry avvay the blood and shoots the offal, [n shifting these weighty cax-cases hoisting is resorted to, and the appliance? are worked by a temporarily-in-stalled steam engine. Pour butchers and two assistants manage to handle about seventy beasts a day. A network of overhead rails for .shifting the dressed carcases about is also constructed in this K^ctiou. The floor is made of asphalt, and is frequently washed down, and with the aid of drain and kliooJm already referred to the greatest cleanliness can be observed. Both hot and cold water is laid on. The livers', ox cheeks, suet, kid neys, and hearts (for exportation) and

tongues and tails (colonial consumption) are also dressed in this department. COOLING .AND CHILLING EOOMft. From the slaughtering room the meat is passed on to the cooling room, and each carcase is weighed while warm in a small porch on the way. There is still no lifting, the scales being attached to the rails. A cj.crk makes a record of the weight. Th© inspector examines the meat, affixes on each carcase his official ticket and i mark denoting the grade, while the weight is also included on the ticket. The cooling room is 72ft x 32ft. and is provided on all exposed sides with a multitude of louvres which can be opcued fully or partially, or closed as necessity arises. The room is airy and lofty. With the beef the animal heat is extracted before weighing- by consigning it to the chilling room over night. The temperature is kept at about 40 degrees by means of ammonia piping installed throughout the room, the dimensions of which arc 60ft x 24ft. The following morning the carcases are quartered up, taken into th^cool-ing-room, weighed, graded, and ticketed similarly to the mutton. The solid rows of mutton and beef in this department is more pleasing to the eye than the scene in the slaughteringroom adjoining. FRKEZ LNG ( JILUI JJLRS . The \v\t stage in the process of rr. e/ing is to get t'hcm.itton and beof ■nto the freeing cha'mbor.s. For the treatment of mutton there arc three uhajmbpi-s eaoh lOOtt. x lift. 6in., and rai'h 's (H}>. bli> cf holding TOO sheep :it one tiin\ r !hi irei re are live chambers, i-nch 100 ft. x :11ft. Gin., u-ovided for the hc'A. Aral each room will accommodate 1)0 bulloL-k.s. The amall . »>ocl>, properly paek'-tod, ni'o also stored in the freezing chambers for a period. C<»m;>l f lo air-tightness is secured by packing ciie d >•••-; 'vrji caii\as and woof, and the cold temperature by th" lii''i»-fvmg and expansion of a,mpionia, which process is explained later uncW the heading of machinery. The unbroken chain of overhead rails, along which the carcases ai'o run continues right into and throughout (he chambers. The pioro of rail between the main line and the chambers can lie readily alffflxed a^ -icoasion requires, and romoved in order to allow tho doors; of tho chsSnubei's \o closo. COLD STORES AND SHIPPING. The cold stores, lUOfl. x 00ft. and J 00ft. x >Stt. respectively for mutton i\\xd beef, are situated lii-jctly undernctitli the fiec/ing chambers and cooling room. When the .neat has been in tho freezing chambers a sufficient length of time to accomplish thorough freezing, each carcase is separately clothed in a thin calico covering and sent dovoi a shoot to \ ho cold stores in readiness for shipin'nt. At the bottom of the shoot workmen, with warm ear and neck «wv >;>•>.•.•* end coats buttoned as a protection against the chilled atmosphere. and soft pliable footgear to obviate slipping on the iciclcd ffloor, ' are receiving Ihe goods and trucking- it to the particular heap for which it is intendd. The room-being I'ghlproof is illuminated by electric Jight while the men arc working. Sets of truck rails ore built conveniently throughout this apartment, so that on -shipping day the -meat has only to be transferred from tho s>Haek to the truck and run out of the building on to the wharf lon tho opposite sido of the road, and hence on to the boat. The floor of | the building and the wharf being r>n a higher level than ihe road, the line over tho intervening space is connected by means of spans of mils on substantially built trestles, 'Ip !• n^-th of which being- such that they are not cumbersome to handl'\ " hose are •t>orched across tlio road only on ■shipping- days, when the '-v»ne N lu-sy •-■! --limited. Trucks are perpetually .moving backwards untl forwards from the wharf and iho cold stores, ♦ho trucks laden with the • mat for exportation to other shores, taking the -»v« cot of rails, and the "return emptio.s" riK.nihj>- on the other set. BYE-INDUSTRIES. Waving thus disposed of the treatment of frozen meat to tho stage of .-hipping, wo will now follow the 'course of the offal and deal with the bye-industries which arc a profitable adjunct to the works. "'hen thrown into separate shoots in the •-lauglitoring room the offal i* precl'pitatcd into a large sized ofial board running the wholo length (120 ft.) of the room- a V>rt of substantial race, wora.l foct above the floor, with iiigh wooden .-ddes and' asphalt protorlwl i'oiors. jlere the oil'al is cleaned and sorted, tossed into a trolly and - tin along a covored-in alloy-way. half circular Klnipc, and about 50ft. m length, around to the boiling-lown department. For this w.ork six- digest ors— four large and two snwll cnes— are in use*. The tallow is abstracted and blown into refiners, the Hrst-^lass and inferior qualities arc separated, then transferred to coolers. a"d eventually distributed through pipes into casks,occupying the floor just below where the offal is first thrown into tho digesters. The refuse fuom the Ji'gesters surges out from near the 'uottom in a sweltering, sticky, unwholesome looking (mess. A workman crathers it together and shovels if. 'mxecl "with blood, on to the receiver attached to the drying machine, which is within convenient roach; the v«!use is sent through three tubes, the whole length of the boiler, with 901t)s pressure' of J stoarii playing on thorn, find finally j emcrcros from tho opposite end of the | drier in tho shape of manure. Tt if j then bag-trod and made roady for dis- , posal. There is n, spare •i!>ry] avail ablo. which is u^e'l w- a siorc for the tallow. AccommoiinUon has also boon provirlodfor wool <tnv!nc and; fHlihrongouy. but po far M'Mthcr of (hose h,ns ropcivod nHn'n(,i<ui. wio robins me (here and rcydy >vhen (jic.'d-