FROZEN MEAT

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3183, 28 May 1932, Page 7

FROZEN MEAT

DOMINION’S FIRST SHIPMENT. ARRIVAL AT LONDON FIFTY YEARS AGO. The following, from Tuesday’s Dominion, is interesting:— By a coincidence, Empire Day this year marks the 50th anniversary of the safe arrival at London of the first shipment of frozen meat from New Zealand. It was on May 24th, 1882, that the little ship Dunedin docked in London after a passage of 98 days from Port Chalmers, thus crowning with complete' success a bold enterprise that started the Dominion on the road to prosperity. The story of Fifty Years of Refrigeration in New Zealand was told in thq spebial sup'p.ement to The Dominion of February 15, the 50th anniversary of the sailing of the Dunedin with her precious cargo. Of her arrival in London it has been said that “ it was not merely a scientific achievement, nor a new method of marketing, nor a new kind of food; it was a step in the founding of a trade system of far-reaching economic significance.” In February, 1882, the Dunedin carried 4909 carcases of mutton and lamb; in February of this year the shipments totalled 1,328,740 carcases. In these days of fast liners specially designed and built for the transport of huge cargoes of perishable foodstuffs, and fitted with refrigerating machinery in duplicate or triplicate. it is difficult to imagine the difficulties facing the pioneer shipment of meat from New Zealand. Marine refrigerating machinery and insulation were then in the ear.iest stage of development.! and had to be fitted into a little sailing ship built in 1874—several years before the carriage of- frozen meat by sea was thought of as a practicable proposition. It is a remarkable testimony to the courage and enterprise of all concerned that such an improvisation should have been attempted, and it was fitting that it should have been completely successful. AN HISTORIC VOYAGE.

The ship Dunedin, 1250 tons register, owned by the Albion Shipping Company, which merged in 1882 into the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, Limited, was engaged by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company to load the first cargo of frozen meat from New Zealand at a freight of 2Jd per lb., and a Glasgow firm of insurance brokers accepted what was then a totally unknown risk by covering all contingencies attaching to the carriage of the meat at the moderate rate of five guineas per cent. Most of the meat was killed on the Land Company’s estate in Otagoj and was frozen on board the ship, which sailed from Port Chalmers on February 15, 1882, with a cargo of 4460 carcases of mutton, 449 carcases of lamb, and 22 carcases of pork. The passage Home round Cape Horn was very much in the nature of a nightmare to the master, Captain Whitson, whose anxieties about the cargo were aggravated by his dread that his masts and rigging would be burnt. The sparks from the boiler funnel set fire to the sails on several occasions. Then in the tropics the ship was for a long time on one tack, and owing to the heel of the ship the cold air was not sufficiently diffused among the carcases. In fact, the temperature in the upper chamber remained so high that the engineer was in despair. Finally, Captain Whitson crawled down the main trunk to alter the circulation, and while cutting fresh openings for the better escape of the air he became so benumbed by the frost that he was only rescued from his perilous position by the mate crawling in behind him and attaching a rope to his legs, by which means he was hauled out of the air trunk. The ship was 98 days on the passage, and during all that time the machinery worked well; at times in cod! weather it was.run only two or three hours in the day. The Dunedin arrived in London on May 24, 1882, and the whole of her cargo was sold within a fortnight. The success of this pioneer shipment is indicated by the fact that only one carcase was condemned. The following is a statement of the results of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company’s shipment:—

£4,216 11 11 The net return per sheep in Port Chalmers was £1 Os HIM, or 3.23 d per lb., and the net return per lamb there 10s 9d, or 3.25 d per !b.

“It is calculated)” said the official report on the shipment, “that there will be a net return of fully 9d per sheep in New Zealand from sale of skins and tallow, after paying: cost of killing and putting on board ship, so that the company has netted £1 Is Bld for its sheep, averaging rather under 81 lb. The loss in selling weight, as compared with shinping weight, amounts to only a little over lib. on each carcase. The charges between Port Chalmers and London, including' insurance and freight, amounted to 2.73 d ner lb., and after the shin arrived in London 0.41 d per lb. The sheep sent Home would only have netted some 11s or 12s per head in the Dunedin market at the time of shipping, so that their value was about doubled. The 939 sheep sent by other shippers sold at about the same prices as the company’s sheep. ..” The other shippers were Messrs James Elder (Ma-

heno)J J. H. Smith (Invercargill), Murray, Roberts and Co., and James Shand.

In view of the present depressed .state of the frozen meat market in London, it is of interest to record that the average price per lb. realised for the mutton carried by the Dunedin was well above the 2£d to 32d quoted at Smithfield last week.. Primest New Zealand lamb is selling today at Smithfield at an average price about equal to that of 50 years ago. The jubilee anniversary of the arrival of the Dunedin is being fittingly celebrated to-day bv the London manager of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board.

Sheep. Per Sheep. Per Lb. c/ses £ s d d £ s d 3136 2 2 7 6.56 6,675 9 8 373 2 3 0 6.54 801 13 6 % 1 9 9 6 11 18 6 5 2 2 7 — 6 7 9 H —. — Lambs. 425 1 1 4 6.45 453 0 11 24 1 9 0 7.60 30 1 0 £7,978 11 4 Pig’s. 22 31 2 11 £8,009 14 3 Charges, freight, insur. etc., 3,793 2 Charges, freight. insurance, etc. 3,793 2 4