AN IMPORTANT INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XI, 31 August 1895, Page 252

AN IMPORTANT INDUSTRY.

MESSRS. NELSON BROS. FREEZING WORKS, HAWKE'S BAY, N.Z. THE exportation of frozen meat from the Australasian colonies commenced in 1880. the first shipment consisting of 400 sheep from Melbourne by the s.s. Strathleven. The success of this experiment, followed by the s.s. I’rotos of 1,900 sheep and lambs, soon after caused arrangements to be made for a trial shipment on a large scale from New Zealand, and the sailing ship Dunedin took on board some 5,000 sheep which were frozen on the ship. After successfully sur-

mounting many difficulties, especially in the tropics, this shipment was landed in London in splendid order. The mutton sold at an average of over 6d per lb., and thus began a new industry which is now such an important factor in the food supply of the United Kingdom. Since that time freezing works have been erected in all parts of New Zealand, and the output hassteadily increased until it has nearly reached 2,000,000 sheep and lambs per annum. Although Australia was first in the field, yet from various causes the trade was allowed to decline, and it is only within the last four or five years that it has been vigorously prosecuted in the Australian colonies. The export from Australia has reached close on 1,000,000 carcases.

It is an undoubted fact that the establishment of the frozen meat trade has done more for the prosperity and welfare of New Zealand as a colony than probably any other enterprise, although just at the present time the trade in England is utterly demoralised by the amount of frozen meat imported from all parts of the world, being so much in excess of the requirements or demand. The market price in London at the present date has never been so low in the annals of the trade, and as stocks are very heavy and large shipments yet to arrive, it is improbable that bottom has yet been touched. We regret we have neither time or space just here to enter into further detail of the frozen meat trade generally.

Messrs Nelson Bros, started freezing operations at foinoana early in 1883, when for the first season’s work they exported some 40,000 sheep. Since then the 1 omoana works have gradually been very much enlarged to meet the growing requirements of the business, until there is now a storage capacity of nearly 100,000 sheep, with capabilities for slaughtering over 2,000 sheep a day when required. Besides these extensions, Messrs Nelson Bros, have opened up branch Works in other parts 01 New Zealand, viz., Gisborne, Waipukurau, Woodville and Marlborough.

1 he benefits of the existence of such establishments as Messrs Nelson Brothers’ works are much felt and appreciated in the various districts in which they are situated. At 1 omoana alone about / 20,000 per annum is paid to employees in wages, whilst the work naturally entails the expenditure of further large amounts for material and stores. The amount paid for railages on goods and

produce to and from Tomoana and the other branches is from /TO.OOO to /i 2,000 a year.

The head office of Messrs Nelson Brothers Limited, is at 15, Dowgate Hill, London. The Company have meat stores under Cannon-street railway-station, and also a large store on the Thames near Blackfriars, iu all representing a storage capacity of over 300,000 sheep. For the year ending 30th September, 1894, the Company in London handled 1,380,000 carcases sheep and lambs, and 64,065 quarters of beef, this meat being importations from Australia and New Zealand. It has always been recognised that frozen meat in a butcher’s shop is not what butchers call a very ‘ eyeable ’ article, especially in warm weather. There is considerable deposit of moisture on it, the condensation from the atmosphere on the cold surface,

and this condition seriously affects the selling value. For some time past experiments have been made in thawing or • defrosting ’ this meat, and have recently been brought to a successful issue. Mr E. Montague Nelson, chairman and managing director of the Company, was one of the first to turn his attention to this matter, and invented and patented a process by which the meat, after having been subjected to his system of ‘ defrosting,’ presents the same appearance as before being frozen, and cuts exactly like ‘ fresh killed English ’ meat. By this process the selling qualities are very materially improved, and it is anticipated that ‘ de-

frosting ’ will prove, in the near future, of very great value to the frozen meat trade generally. The head office of Nelson Bros., Limited, for the colony, is at Tomoana, Hawke’s Bay. Mr W. Nelson is the general manager, and Messrs H. G. Warren and G. L. Sunderland are the senior members of the staff of management, whilst Mr J. B. Reid at Christchurch is the Company’s representative for the South Island. All the works belonging to Messrs Nelson Bros., Limited, have been planned and erected under the personal supervision of Mr W. Nelson himself. TOMOANA. The Tomoana Works are situated twelve miles from the port of Nap’er, directly on the main line of railway between Napier and Wellington, and no less than three sidings run in amongst the various buildings. THE OFFICES, a large and conveniently-arranged building, first call for our attention. Here all the clerical work for the New Zealand business is transacted, it being the head office for the Company in New Zealand. Telephones com-

municate with the shipping agents at the port, the Waipukurau Works, 35 miles south of Tomoana, as well as the adjoining town of Hastings, and the Napier Telephone Exchange. We now proceed to the FREEZING WORKS, an extensive and imposing block of buildings covering between two and three acres of ground. The large receiving and drafting yards for cattle as well as sheep are complete with all the necessary races and pens. Here the stock for killing are received, tallied, and drafted, nothing being driven into the slaughter-house which shows signs of being unfit for killing. From the yards we enter the SLAUGHTER-HOUSE. In this building all the floors are of concrete, enabling the place to be kept thoroughly cool, fresh, and clean

by continual flushings with water. Here we meet with a sight not easily to be forgotten. With room for thirty-two butchers working in a long line, as many as 3,000 sheep a day are, in the busiest part of the sea c on put to the knife. From the slaughter-house a series of overhead rails provide a distinct rail for each butcher, on which the sheep he kills travel on rollers towards the COOLIN G-ROOM. The sheep are received at the opening into the cool-ing-room by the dressers, who adjust the sets and tie-

backs and put the finishing touches on the carcases. Each carcase is then weighed and ticketed, the ticket showing the brand of the particular lot of sheep and the weight of the carcase, the weights being entered by a tally-clerk on a cleverly-devised weight sheet. At this point the sheep are graded in accordance with their weight and quality, the cooling-room containing a series of overhead rails which are set apart for these grades. The carcasses having been drafted on to their proper rails according to their grade of weight, sex, or quality, are individually examined by the ‘ expert butcher,’ who either passes them as fit to ship, or rejects them for blemishes—bad colour, poor condition, excessive fatness, or a variety of other causes. Greatest

care is exercised in this department, no old ewes or any sheep weighted over yolbs being passed for shipment. The cooling-room is fitted with cold brine pipes carried overhead, immediately above the rails, which enables the room, not only to be kept ata medium temperature even in the hottest weather, but also creates circulation and precludes the slightest possibility of ‘ bone taint’ or other damage to the meat even on the muggiest of days. After the sheep have hung here all day until thoroughly cool, they are taken into the freezing rooms

(of which there are four capable of freezing 2,000 sheep each) in the upper storey by means of elevating machines on the principle of on endless chain. The sheep hanging on these are thus transported to any part of the freezing chamber that may be required, and here they hang until thoroughly frozen, when, having been put into their bags, they are passed through shoots in the floor into the STORE ROOMS

below. The bags are branded with marks indicating not only the particular ' lot ’ of sheep, but also the grade to which each sheep belongs, so that it is possible to pick out in London a sheep of any particular grade of weight or of any sex, if necessary. This system of grading,

initiated by Nelson Bros., and now almost universally adopted, has been of great assistance in the conduct of the business in London, and to the meat trade generally. The stores consist of three immense rooms on the ground floor, besides several other smaller rooms on the same floor as well as upstairs. The whole building is capable of holding nearly 100,000 sheep altogether. The meat is stored in numerous bins, which enables any particular number of carcases or ‘ lot ’ to be easily sorted out. The meat is passed out of the store rooms on shoots into insulated railway vans, and is thus conveyed to the port of Napier, transhipped into steam-lighters fitted with insulated holds and small refrigerators sufficiently powerful to keep the holds at a low temperature, and from thence out into the bay, where the Home (earners take in their cargo without any great difficulty, weather rough enough to prevent loading being an exceptional occurrence. Now, having followed the carcase of the sheep through, we turn to tb“ other departments on the Works, but before leaving the Freezing works, we visit the engine-room. This is the show-piece of the establishment —a splendidlylighted room 95 feet by 57 feet, in four bays, with glass skylights. Here are three of Haslam's largest coldair refrigerators, two of them each delivering 170,000 cubic feet of cold air per hour, and the other 120,000 cubic feet. These machines deliver the cold air into the trunks at from 80 to 90 degrees below zero. Alongside them, in the furthest bay, is a complete J. and E. Hall’s No. 14 Carbonic Anhydride refrigerating machine, with brine circulating pumps and plant. This little machine is constantly at work, as the brine pipes, mentioned before, assist in the actual freezing of the meat as well as cooling the hanging-room. In the Hall ’ bay is also a large Worthington compound steam self-starting fire pump, always ready for work, and which delivers at a very high pressure up to 1,000 gallons of water per minute. A complete water service is laid on all over the Works, with stand-pipes, fire-hose, etc., at convenient places, and always available for immediate use. In a small glassed-in room in the corner of the engine-room is a 250 light Siemen’s Dynamo and Gwynne’s vertical engine, combined. The entire works and offices*kre lighted by electricity. Everything in this department is kept in the order which the large amount of money expended on its contents demands. This room contains ,£'25,000 worth of machinery. Here, as elsewhere in the Works,cleanliness is very noticeable, the floor being in ‘ quarter-deck’ condition. Adjoining the engine-room is the boiler-house, a lofty building, 71 feet by 66 feet, in which are six Babcock and Wilcox boilers, in all producing over 800 horse-power. These boilers supply the steam for the • whole Works. In odd corners are various other small machines, amongst which are noticeable two quadrupleacting boiler feed pumps. A very important and valuable feature about the Works is the wonderful and ever obtainable WATER SUPPLY from Artesian wells. There are some dozens of these wells on the Works, the pipes varying from 2 to 6 inches, the largest of these, a 6-inch well, sunk 150 feet, throwing as much as 15,000 gallons per hour. We now proceed to the other departments of the industry. A line of tramway running from the slaughter house is the means of conveying the skins, fat, offal, etc., to their various destinations. The best fat is taken to a building, where it is manipulated into oleo and stearine by a very complete process and extensive plant. The remainder of the fat and offal is run into the ‘ BOILING-DOWN,’ and the products made into tallow and manure. The skins make a little longer journey, and find their way into the FELLMONGERY, a very large building, 130 feet by 105 feet in 4 bays. Concrete floors and a plentiful supply of water keep the place fresh and clean. Here the skins are washed in ‘ dolleys,’ and after being passed through large machine wringers, are painted with suphide of sodium. In due course the wool is removed to the WOOL SHED and drying stage. The pelts are washed, pickled, and packed for export to London. The wool is dried in the sun on large batten floors, and also put through Nelson and Bowen’s patent wool-drier, of which there are two in constant work. This is a most complete, economical, and efficient machine, being on the principle of a large revolving batten drum with shelves inside al various distances. As the machine revolves, a current of hot air is forced by means of a blast fan through the horizontal battens in such a manner that the current catches the wool as it falls off the top shelf at each revolution of the drum. This blowing about not only dries the wool, but

is the means of shaking out all the dust, dirt, and foreign matter which otherwise would go Home to London. These machines as well as the fan for producing the current of air, are driven by a ‘Lane’s’ fivehorse engine. The air is heated by an ingenious but simple coil of steam pipes enclosed in an oblong trunk, through which the air from outside is drawn into the centrifugal fan. When the wool is thoroughly dried, the machines are emptied bv means of a blast of air, which blows the wool out of an opening at the end of the drum as it is revolving. The wool is then baled up, weighed, banded, and loaded np on to the railway trucks, which run into the woolshed. We next visit the MEAT PRESERVING DEPARTMENT. Here the sheep which are not frozen and shipped are dealt with. The meat is rapidly but neatly separated fiom the bones by an expert ‘boner,’ and passed through on trollies to the TINNING ROOM, and after having been treated, is pressed into tins, which are then so placed into the steam retorts, and cooked an 1 thence are conveyed to the PACKING-ROOM, where they are cleaned, lacquered, labelled, and packed ready for export or local consumption.

In a room adjoining the tinning-room, is the KITCHEN, in which the tongues are prepared and tinned, and such articles as pork and beef sausages, rissoles, brawn, etc., are made and tinned. The TIN SHOP is close at hand, in which all the different parts of the tins are stamped out of the sheets of tin by * Bliss ’ machine presses, of which there are two, one for 61b tins, and the other for smaller sizes. The parts are then put together by the tinsmiths. THE CARPENTER’S, BLACKSMITH’S, AND FITTING SHOPS, are replete with every necessary machine, such as lathes (for wood or metal), planing and drilling machines,etc. as well as complete tools for doing all the engineers and joining work required on the works, and also for effecting any repairs necessary to either machinery or plant. In addition to labour-saving appliances used wherever practicable, over 200 men are employed when the establishment is in full work, representing a weekly wages sheet of over 2’450. All the bags for covering the meat are also made up by the wives and relations of the workmen. For some distance the land surrounding the works is owned

by Nelson Bros., and in the immediate vicinity of the buildings a considerable-sized township has grown up, there being between thirty and forty cottages, tenanted by some of the workmen and their families, in addition to dining-rooms for the other men, bachelors’ sleeping quarters, men's library, and a large room (fitted with a stage), used at times for concerts, dances, etc. Nelson Bros, own freezing establishments at Waipukurau 46 miles, and at Woodville, 97 miles south from Napier, respectively, both being on the main line of railway ; also at Gisborne and at Spring Creek, near Blenheim, Marlborough. Having described the working arrangements at Nelson Bros’, bead establishment at Tomoana, it is unnecessary to do so at their other works, for although these branch establishments are on a much smaller scale than Tomoana, they are built and worked on the same principle, and the system of classing and methods of dealing with the stock are the same as at Tomoana. Nelson Bros, commenced freezing operations Tomoana in February, 1884, when for the first season’s work they exported slightly over 41,000 sheep. At the present time they export to London near’y 300,000 sheep every year from their own works.