Wangauui Notes

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 140, 19 May 1891, Page 2

Wangauui Notes

There are unnristakeable signs tha the benign rays of the dawn of a new and prosperous day are shedding their light over the town of Wanganui. .„ The business people look as if they had something to do; landed property, which a few months ago was unsaleable, now finds ready purchasers ; there is not an unoccupied house in the Borough, and, most important of all, there are few idle men to be seen in the streets. One thing which strikes the casual visitor is that while there are numbers of strapping young fellows in all" the pride of life and vigorous manhood, there are so few of them who devote any portion of their vital energies to athletics. Taking their physique as a guide, Wangauui should have the best football teams, the best rowing clubs, the best cricket clubs, the best all-round gymnasts and athletes, and the best and smartest volunteer corps in the colony. They have the best shots certainly, but in no other respect are they they entitled to be called best. The material is there, and plenty of it, but why is it not worked up, or licked into shape, nobody seems to know. Of course an outstder sees most of the game, and our interpretation is that the young fellows have to depend too much on thenown resources, both as regards time and money. The gentry, and other folks who are in independent circumstances, and that there are plenty of the leisure class in and about Wanganui is evidenced by the handsome and commodious villas and private residences scattered in all directions, which, with their pretty and wellkept gardens and orchards, make the suburbs as charming as any in New Zealand, do not lend themselves in a sufficiently demonstrative manner to any undertakings which have for their object the physical education of lads and young men. Old men, when they get stiff in the joints, are always willing to tell the feats of strength and agility they performed "in the days when they were young," giving the impression that " the young men uow-a-days" are much deteriorated as compared with their fathers. Well, we will grant this, if only to please the old fellows, but the intelligent among them must admit that if a process of deterioration from the old standard ia going on, surely it is the manifest duty of these fathers to do their level best to obviate such a dire calamity by every possible and available means. They should also remember that the responsibility rests with them, and not with their offspring. This, is however, by the way. To get back to the prosperity of Wanganui. The indirect cause of this is that a local company has established freezing works at the mouth of the river, and that thereby the splendid road for commerce which has been allowed to lie idle and unproductive for so many wasted years is now to be utilised. A few days ago, by the courtesy of the manager, Mr Robertson, we were enabled to make an examination of the Wanganui Freezing Works. What was most impressed on us was the massive character, the elaborate and systematic attention given to detail, and the consummate excellence of the work aa a whole. At a glance it may be seen that the hand of the expert has bee i placed on all things. Nothing has been left to chance, while that greatest curse of all, " the make-shift," has not found a nook on which to hide itself. The process, as described by Mr Robertson, was too elaborate for us to venture to introduce it into these columns, but we may <?ive a brief description of the modus operandi, and will follow the sheep from the time they enter the gates of the pens until their frozen carcases are sent down the shoofc which puts them on board the lighter, which, in its turn, will convey the carcase to the ocean steamer lying outside the bar of the river, waiting to secure her cargo. The sheep are driven up a gently sloping race into pens adjoining the killing room, where ten men will be employed in them. As 'soon as a carcase is cleaned and dressed it is hung by the gambles to a traveller running on an iron rail, when by its own weight, it is conveyed into the cooling chamber. After a proper time bus elapsed, and all anim.il heat has escaped, it is lowered into the freezing room, from thence to the store room, and finally placed into a shoot and passed into the lighter alongside the wharf. By this mode it will be seen that an enormous saving in labor is effected, because handling and carrying about of the carcases is almost done away with altogether, and one man can do with ease and facility what, under the system which obtains in some freezing works, would require four or five. The drains and pipes for carrying off drippings and water, also for say ing the coagulated blood which will be afterwards utilized as a fertiliser on the adjacent sand dunes, are on a most perfect plan. The skins and hides will be conveyed to the fellmongery and tannery by a train which will run by the gravity of the contents of the trucks on the same system as that which obtains with the carcases. The steam engine is one of the best of its kind and there is only one of greater power in the colony. It was not completely put together at the date of our visit, but one could see sufficient to form the opinion that the man who had the duty of superintending this was a master of his profession as an engineer. The dynamo for the electric light, is one of the newest and best patents. This apparatus will also be a means of effecting a large saving. The appliances and system of fire-preventing or extinguishing fires, are well arranged, the services of Captain Cummin, of the Wanganui Fire Brigade, having been obtained, so that nothing has been overlooked or neglected in that respect. The concrete water-tanks are large, possibly the largest in the colony, and quite capable of meeting any emergency which may arise in the shape of fire ; and at the same time keeping the works supplied with abundance of water for all purposes. As to the number of sheep and cattle the freezing works will put through, or the cubic measurement of the seyeral roomß and chambsrs, these are mere details which can have no place in this article. We have only to deal with the broad fact that the Wanganui Freezing Company have done a good work, and that Mr A. Atkins, the architect, has succeeded well in the performsince of his part of it. It is enterprises such as this which make a place prosperous. That this additional market for the produce of sheep aud cattle farmers will be largely patronised goes without saying. We take this opportunity of thanking Mr Gr. S. Robinson, the manager, for the trouble he took to show us over the several buildings, and to explain matters connected with the future operations of the comp\ny. After a pleasant drive back to town, and refreshing the inner man at the excellent hotel guided and governed by Host Chevannes, we went to visit Soler's Vineyard Where we found the proprietor deep in the recesses of his wine cellar and win re by the "dim religious light" of a solitary candle he was engaged in putting in bottle some of his wines. With prompt hospi talifcy he drew a couple of glasses "for se'f and friend" of wine which had beeu in the wood for eight years. It was good. Most people know that Mr Soler has taken' medals and prizes at exhibitions all over the world, where his productions haye been submitted to the moßt crucial tests

by the best judges of the juice of the grape. After having our hearts gladdened like the patriarchs of old, we went through the conservatories, and although the vines were rugged lookiug and leafless, there' there was- abundant evidence to show thatMr Soler is a true vigneron in the beat sense of the term. Proceeding through the orchard, Mr Soler showed us sometrees covered with tar, which latter had been recommended to him as an infallible • euro for the blight. There was mor& I blight on these "cured; " trees than on all the others put together, A little further on he showed us some snails, the progenitors of which bad originally been brought out from England by an uxorious husband (Major Finnimore) to- please mV wife— who had never seen a snail. As w& haveseen the same pests in Auckland, where they have been established for many years, we take ibis yarn with a grain of salt, A» to the properties of the soil for the culture of the grape, what Mr Soler bias accomplished gives ample proof of their suitableness. It is men of the capacity, skill and industry of Mr Soler who make a country prosperous.