ISLINGTON FREEZING WORKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6215, 1 August 1898, Page 4

ISLINGTON FREEZING WORKS.

EXTENSIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS. The great pressure of business at the Christchurch Meat Company's Islington works during the past season has been responsible for such extensions as amount almost to a transformation of the previously immense establishment. The additions are not yet completed ; indeed, there has not yet, since the company purchased the premises, ibeen a time when some increase of the Accommodation or addition to the plant was not in process. • During the last few weeks tfhe receiving and drafting yards have been almost doubled in capacity. They are now models of convenience, and it is to be noted that they are so constructed as to obviate any danger of sheep being bruised as they are passed through, and that fresh running water is carried through every yard. The slaughterhouse has stands for seventy butchers, and the cooling room has been enlarged so that in it more than six thousand, carcases of mutton ■can be hung at one time. The pipes from the Hercules refrigerator are carried over the whole of this large room, and even during the hottest of the summer's nor'-westers the temperature never rises above 60deg. The lighting of the establishment has called for the provision of a new dynamo, Holmes's "Castle" make, which can be so regulated as to run one light or the whole four hundred which are required at the works -when darkness sets in. The most prominent addition is the new felhnongery. It is at present fitted for the treatment of six thousand full-woolled skins daily, and can be arranged to deal with a much larger number. The skins are washed, drained (by two hydro-extractors), and painted with dehairing compound on the ground floor; then taken to the upper floor by means of elevators and there pulled. ■ There I . are- beams" for sixteen pullers. The wool is dried by two machines, the larger and more satisfactory of which is, like several of the appliances at the works, the invention of Mr Gilbert Anderson, managing director of the company. In this new drier the wool is carried on endless bands of wire netting through a hot-air chamber some sixty feet long. The moisture evaporated' from the wool is exhausted by a unique contrivance, by which this greatest difficulty in drying wool by hot air has been overcome. The two driers can deal with thirtyfive bales of wool daily, and when the second of the new type is erected the ■whole of the wool will be dried in this way, and the costly system of " paddock-drying " will hs discontinued. There is a press on each floor, and abundance of bins for holding the wool until it is in proper order for being packed. Proportionate additions have been made to the space allotted to the various other operations in this department. The increase in the company's manure business, which enables the waste products to be profitably disposed of, has led to the introduction of a manure drier of the largest size made, being of about 2000 cubic feet measurement. The gases are not allowed to escape from this drier, and consequently the offensive smell which was unavoidable when other appliances were used is now suppressed, while the manure is more effectively treated. The utilisation of the waste products is more systematic than ever. Even the water used for flushing is now skimmed above and below, that is, both the scum and the sediment are taken from the water and treated for their various constituents. Thus the little water which escapes from the works .does so in an inodorous and practically pure state. There is, however, insufficient escape, water to irrigate the company's paddocks as thoroughly "as is wished. There is no .drainage difficulty at Islington. ' The qI(J woolshed 'has been converted, into* ft ?^»J*?i.*!?.?;'fiEftrop&4-offic»--i:as" given place to a comtnodious brick building, which will afford the accommodation necessary for the clerical staff of this extensive establishment. Two additional wells are being sunk to the third stratum, the supply of water from which has been ascertained to be practically inexhaustible, and there are numerous minor improvements at various points throughout the works. It need scarcely be said that the quality of the meat is maintained at the company s recognised high standard, the result being that "Eclipse" brand, of both mutton and lamb, commands higher prices in London than any other frozen meat. In order to show farmers how their stock is treated, the company has issued invitations to an inspection of the. works and processes, on Friday, August 12. After the grading — alive and dead—^freezing, fellmongering, preserving, manure and other works have been viewed, a luncheon prepared from frozen meat will be provided. It is astonishing how very few of the farmers of Canterbury have yet been though a freezing works, and this oppqrtunity will no doubt be availed of by most of those invited.