Founders of Modern Agriculture, No. 14.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 58, Issue 2, 20 February 1939, Page 191

Founders of Modern Agriculture, No. 14.

J. W. WOODCOCK,

Crop Experimentalist, Fields Division.

Thomas Brydone. NEW ZEALAND has made a generous . contribution towards the advancement of modern agriculture, and one of the outstanding individual contributors was Thomas Brydone, who represented the New Zealand and Australian Land Company in this Dominion from 1867 to 1900. The rapid development of the New Zealand meat and dairy industry began when the first shipment of frozen meat left these shores on the sailing-ship Dunedin ” in 1881, a venture conceived by Mr. W. S. Davidson, general manager of the Land Company in London. The latter made all the necessary shipping arrangements and instructed Thomas Brydone to erect a killing-shed, secure first-class butchers, and prepare for the loading of a cargo of attractive sheep.

Thorough Arrangements.

The shed was erected on the company’s Totara Estate near Oamaru, where a memorial cairn now stands, ' and the thoroughness with which Brydone carried out these preliminary arrangements contributed largely to the - success of the scheme. Davidson came out from London to complete the shipping arrangements, and with Brydone’s assistance personally stowed the frozen carcasses on board the “ Dunedin ” at Port Chalmers. Brydone, foreseeing the possibilities of dairying in the Dominion, used his influence to arrange for a quantity of butter to be included in the cargo. Thus began the Dominion’s large export trade of meat and dairy products. . On arrival at Smithfield the excellent condition and quality of the meat aroused intense interest. Of the whole cargo of

more than four thousand carcasses of mutton only one was condemned, the balance being sold readily. As further shipments of meat and butter . took place Brydone took the deepest interest in the export trade of these two commodities, and he had enormous faith in the possibilities thus opened up. Dairy Factories Established. Under his direction the New Zealand and Australian Land Company continued to develop successfully large tracts of land in Otago and Southland and to establish dairy factories. One of the earliest factories at Edendale was built in 1882, Brydone supervising the erection and layout. This factory was established not only for the manufacture of cheese, but we are told that it was also an experimental station and a training school for cheesemakers. ' Such a venture was bound to have a marked influence on the dairy industry of New Zealand, which from that time continued to develop under the stimulus of the export trade opened up by the “ Dunedin ” shipment. Thomas Brydone retired in 1900 after having exerted a considerable influence on New Zealand farming, and in 1904 he died in London. ■fr «