The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1889. Audi Alteram Partem

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 136, 23 May 1889, Page 2

The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1889. Audi Alteram Partem

-« As we have published au account of the new process for preserving meat, we now lay before our readers some extracts from an article on the othor side of tho question, written by Mr Alexander Beck, M.E., Consul for Belgium in Christchurch, to the local Telegraph. After complimenting that journal on the fact of its having correctly conjectured the base of the principle he says : — " Ignited sulphur is the base of the scheme. First of all that renovated scheme will never supersede the refrigerating process as far as the meat trade ia concerned, especially tbe export of New Zealand meat. Any antiseptic keeps the meat iv a more or less soft fleshy state, and unless the refrigerated spaces on board the ships are ten times enlarged to keep their actual number of car* cases, tbe process is useless. The great advantage of the freezing is tbat hardened carcases can be piled like stones one over the other without injury, saving space aud labor in the refrigerated rooms. Meat preserved by auteseptic, forwarded in that way, would bo more or less exposed to heat or to a dry fermentation in the centre of tbe piles ; it would be squashed. Unless a refrigerating power is added, the carcases must be separated one from the other if antiseptic is only used. Sir Charles Clifford may be at rest ; his shipping interests in New Zealand are as safe as his 100,000 sheep. The so-called new scheme is unable to give a blow to the freezing system. With some improvement the sulphurous process, as known by our grandfathers, may be of course advantageously applied on hoard steamers or on land for hotels, tradesmen, or country people to keep vegetables, fowls, fish, &c. Everything tried at the historic board oi! the Continental Hotel (to use Sir C. Clifford's expression) was truly of tho dates mentioned when cooked ; there is na reason to doubt it. But having an incredulous temper, I went on board the Coptic at her stay in Lyttelton last week. I knew through an article of the Otago Daily Times, that Houie eggs and one fowl preserved by the said scheme were ou board the steamer for experiment. I was received with the courtesy habitual to the officers of a "White Star iinor. The purser, Mr Rae, declined even to show me anything, aud I must say was very reticent. I could not have even the name of the patentee. When your Loudon correspondent affirms that no scientific explanation of the scheme is available, when he goes as Ear as to mention the names of savants as authorities unable to find how the process acts, I am sorry to say that he must be in error. Men like Professor Atfield, Redwood, Fidey, Japp, &c, are certainly aware of the power of any antiseptic, especially of the sulphurous aud arsenious acid. Our Museum and Universities are full of preparations aud anatomical pieces or subjects preserved in that way. The direct action of any antiseptic is to destroy or rather to suspend the vitality of those microbes and miasmas which originate the fermentation followed by putrefaction, bo quickly increased by the help of outside insects. The more I read on the subject the more my studies and experiments are getting on, and the more I feel the certainty that antiseptics are useless as far as the export of meat is concerned. I repeat again that the refrigerating power of antiseptics, or chemicals, will certainly supercede the actual expensive machinery in use to obtain cold air. For the reasons tormerly given the refrigerating power of the liquid sulphurous acid will be used. The day will come when refrigerated rooms, acted permanently by cheap chemicals, will be established in every large country station near portß or railways and the carcases forwarded direct to the steamers, avoiding the actual rush when several 6hips have to be loaded at the same time. The trade will be more regular; our tanneries will get skins weekly, instead of receiving them in bulk, as it is too often the actual and detrimental case. Before ending let rae say, onco for all, that chemicals and antisep tics, except tasteless gas like nitrogen, musfc be used extra muros of the meat preserved for a long journey.