THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1047, 11 January 1884, Page 2

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Francis Hicks, who has been largely engaged in driving sheep from Hawke’s Bay to Waikato, and who was employed to lay off paddocks between Hawke’s Bay and Litchfield, has sent the following c immunication to Mr Banks, the Managing Director of the New Zealand Frozen Meat and Storage Company : “Auckland, Jan. Bth, 1884. “ J. Banks, Managing Director New Zealand Frozen Meat and Storage Co. “ Sir, —It is scarcely necessary to remark that in starting a Freezing Company here you and others familiar with the kind of stock raised in this and adjoining districts, calculated upon drawing your supplies directly or indirectly from there (Hawke’s Bay) at whatever cost. Supplies from there will have to increase, because our own flocks are not keeping pace in their growth with the requirements of the market. It is quite another matter whether under existing circumstances it will pay to bring sheep here from that district to be frozen for export. For this purpose the London market must fix the value of sheep in Hawke’s Bay, consequently the difference in the coat of sending them to the frozen depots of Auckland and Wellington must be taken into account. The latter is only half the distance by sea that Auckland is from Hawke's Bay. Having this advantage, is it likely that Wellington people will be so blind to their own interests as to allow the surplus stock of the largest sheep producing district in the Island to be taken from them, for want of a concession being made to a freezing Company, as has been done in Auckland ? The circumstances at present are equally favorable to Wellington for taking sheep overland. The distance is shorter and the road runs through better country to the nearest point of either railway than is the case with Auckland, and unless this advantage is met by making paddocks between Hawke’s Bay and Litchfield it can. not pay to bring a single sheep to Auckland to be exported. It is true that under very favorable circumstances sheep have been brought to this district without injury, but then they were fed on old sheep camps and other patches of grass known to drovers, and these have not been eaten by other mobs of sheep. This is proved by the fact that out of about 500 brought straight through from Hawke’s Bay and sent by Motorua only one was rejected as being unfit for freezing. It farther proves th.it when men understand their work sheep can be yarded and paddocked without injury. The sheep in question were brought over and yarded eight or nine times on the road, and were put through the yards and drafted from the ewes at Oambr dge. With regard to the 'sit be selected for paddocks, and the difficulty [ about the sheep being able to reach them

from day to day, 1 may say that they are in all cases either part of or close to old sheep camps, and that, with a dozen years’ experience, I have never known a sound mob of fat store sheep fail to reach them. The difficulty has always been with lame sheep and what to do with them. With paddocks this would be done away with. As to the question whether the proposed paddocks ;ooul • be made to take grass or cot, it is a fact that without being sown, some of the old sheep camps are covered with rich clover. Of course this is the result of heavy manuring, but then how long would it take to make paddocks of two or three hundred acres each just as rich and large? By mobs of sheep camping on them, I have no hesitation in saying that in a very short time those paddocks would bo capable of properly feeding on tha road a much larger number of sheep than Hawke’s Bay can send us, whereas now it is well known to every farmer, butcher and auctioneer in this district that sheep, as a rule, suffer great injury in coming across, and consequently are greatly depreciated in value, and being so is it possible to over-estimate the value to farmers, consumers and the freezing Company of the means which, as shown in a previous report, can be obtained at a small cost that would practically bring the large grazing and fattening district of Hawke’s Bay close to our borders and to our railways 1 What I have further to say does not necessarily form a part of this question. My object is to show how advantage can be best taken of our position in dealing with the whole question of supplies from Hawke’s Bay. But assuming that paddocks are made and that sheep can be brought through without injury, there remains the still more important question as to whether our farmers can compete with the Coast for the surplus store sheep iu Hawke’s Bay. Any one familiar with the two districts must know that our only chance of being able to do so lies in our having a superior turnip-growing district. An extraordinary quantity of turnips could not be grown unless previous arrangements were made with breeders to deliver sheep when required. The difficulty—that of price—hitherto in the way of such arrangements, no longer exists, because the London market price of mutton must give fat and store sheep a relative value at per lb as much as the price of flour governs the price of wheat. With this difficulty once settled, it becomes as much an object to the seller as to the buyer to arrange for the delivery of his stock at a fixed time. Later in the season in a heavily stocked district like Hawke’s Bay, subject at times to long droughts, such an arrangement would soon become the rule, and if so, Waikato rather than ; the West Coast, would be in the best position to take advantage of it, because the best grass-growing districts can reckon ■ on hav : ng a certain quantity of feed at a given time with the same certainty that ■ turnip growers can. The question now ■ comes, how large a number of sheep can ' be arranged for and moved from the 1 hands of the breeders to those of farmers 1 and from the farmers to the freezing shed in the cheapest way. That the old method of dealing will have to be abandoned is beyond question, if we look at what has been and must be the result of it. Let us suppose that store wethers are worth to the breeder at a weight on an average of 401bs each, 31 per lb, that, after keeping them three months on turnips i»j the Waikato, they weigh 601 b each, and that they are worth 3d per lb, or 15s each in Auckland. The expenses connected with them are as follows : i 50,000 sheep at 10s each, L 25,000 ; when fat, worth 15a etch, L 37,590 ; commission for buying, at 6d, L 1,250 ; cist of driving to Waikato, at Is, L 2.500 ; coat of selling at auction, at 6d, L 1,250 ; speculator ot owner’s profit, 6d, trucking to Auckland (including loading), Is, cost of selling in Auckland, at 61, L 1,250. i The farmer thus gets for three months’ • feed, at Is, L 2,500. Now, let us sea what it can be done for under one agency and ; paddocking. 50,000 sheep, at 10s each, ; L 25,000 ; cost of pu chasing, L3oO ; eight i men’s wages for sis months, at L 3 10s a > week, L7OO ; 500 sheep lost, L 250 ; inter- - est at 10 per cent, on HO,OOO (for pad- ■ docks) L 1000; cost of slaughtering in Waikato at 6 1 a head, L 1,250 ; railway freight • to Auckland, at 71 a carcase, L 1,458 ; farmers’ profit, 3i a head or 3d per week, L 7,542. What the result of such a sys r tern if acted upon on a large scile would , be to our up-country farmers is not diffii cult to imagine. With rega dto sheep i being sent to Auckland to be frozen from the West Coast there is this difficulty in i the way, they cannot be brought direct to the freezing shed by sea or land.' At » Wellington they can do both, which i makes all the difference.”