The Lyttelton Times WEDNESDAY, DEC. 21, 1881.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6495, 21 December 1881, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times WEDNESDAY, DEC. 21, 1881.

The main point in tho report which the Committee of Enquiry hm submitted for the consideration of persons in* teres ted in the formation of a meat RefrigerationCompsny. is tho third. Tho present number of sheep and cattle in the Canterbury district i« comparatively of small importance. The price at which mat is now produced is relatively a very email consideration. The present somber is rather more than the local market can ■ dispose of, and very mush lew than the country is capable under more favourable circumstances of markets of carrying. The present price is without guarantee of permanency. What is wanted to give new Ufa to 'farming operations in tbb country is a permanent minimum of price. W«. can afford ■ to have the minimum low, but we cannot afford to

havo k uncertain. Tho great object of finding a freeb market for meat in the establishment of a certainty of price for all the meat which the Colony can produce. It in not to relieve the present overstocked condition of ngrl* cultural or pastoral properties. Neither is the mere sale of all producible meat and dairy produce, the chief object of finding a now market for these products of a rich soil. That is the establishment of a profitable system of agriculture j or, rather, of the one system which enjoys the certainty of profitable permanency, in place of the enforced narrowness of routine cropping, which bids fair, by a period more or less distant, according io the varying capacities of the different localities, to exhaust tho toil completely. Agriculture without stock farming, can never be permanently profitable. Combined with that indispensable and valuable adjunct, agriculture becomes ti business which will maintain all generations of proprietors up to the end of time. The establishment of a llcfrigemlion Company is therefore nothing less serious than the regeneration of farming in Canterbury, If the farmer io given an outlet for all the meat be can grow, and all the cheese and butter which he can manufacture, at prices which can be depended upon, he can take to that rotation of crops and that scientific agriculture which are to him at present impossible. At present he and the fertility of his soil are running a race against time. Unless something is done to help the pair, the day io not far off when, in the majority of instances, time will win.

Tbo establishment of a Refrigeration Company io ooe of the moans by which the desirable result of enabling the former to win the race can be obtained. It will, we fancy, be readily conceded that it is the only method of getting an outlet lor the country's future pro* ducts which is worth considering. The only reason wo will giro in support of a proposition which wo consider self* evident, la that it has about it the elements of self-reliance, mid self-help, without which nothing can succeed, in ibis world, and which ought, if there is anything in the colonising theory, to be especially virtue© of colonial people. The necessity for proceeding by the method of self*reliance being admitted, tie two most important things to determine, after the Company has been formed, are tbo site for its proposed operations, and tbo hind of machinery to be employed upon them. Into these questions the question of dairy produce docs not in any way enter. The object of a Refrigeration Company is not to make batter or cheese, hot to carry it to London from tbo Colony in good condition. The site of the Refrigerating Company's establishment to, therefore, of no importance to dairymen. Neither is the machine employed for refrigerating; because whatever machine may be employed, there will always bo sufficient exhaust cold air to keep cheese and butter at the temperature necessary for their proper preservation. It is only as shareholders that dairy farmers can be interested in these two questions. The Committee have recommended that the site must he whore abundant paddock accommodation is obtainable; which, considering that the meat to be delivered in the English market must be prime, is a recommeadation of too much weight to be disregarded. Of the many machines of which they have seen descriptions, the Committee have selected the Haalam machine, for a reason which commends itself to all who have read that too much moisture is the drawback of the other machines employed. But these are questions for the Directors and shareholders of tbo proposed Company to consider. The great point is to get the Company started first. Co-operation is, of course, necessary to the success of such a Company. Cooperation must be Colonial first, universal after. The Company appeals to every interest in Canterbury, in a country dependent on agricultural and pastoral production, in which these things are the basis of financial life. Any realisable project for developing agricultural and pastoral resources appeals to the general interest it concerns, and. of coarse, the agricultural aud pastoral people very much more nearly. To them, subscription to the shares of a meat refrigeration Company io simply the payment of a premium of insurance. In taking shares they are insuring the continued fertility of the soil. Others who wish to invest may rely upon it that a Company, which appeals to such wide permanency of interest, must, if well managed, prove profitable to its shareholders. Shipping and Produce Companies may bo relied on to co-operate also, the former because they have already commenced, and the latter for the some reason, though in a less degree, and both because it is their interest. Co-operation in Great Britain is one of those things which is easily talked about. It is at the same time one of those things which, unless it is organised and placed mvn sound financial basis, cannot exist. The best course for Colonial refrigerating companies to adopt will be to discard all offers of assistance -from sentimentalists and dilletanti lecturers, dinnergivers, orators, and all xealous but irresponsible and mostly foolish persons. They ought instead to combine in establishing general agencies in London, with branches in all parts of the United Kingdom. Tbo Orange Company (Now South Wales) has already taken the field. Combination, on .that model, of many New Zealand companies, would be a sensible practical method of bringing New Zealand meat before tbo consumers. As cold storage is already provided in two places at the Royal Victoria Docks aud at the Albert Docks, and will shortly bo at the St Katherine's Docks, there should bo no difficulty, with the co-operation of the railway companies, in getting a complete system under weigh. But this is looking over-far ahead for tbo beginning. The first thing to bo done in to establish the company.

Ifofc the information upon which it basedits opinion. Wo now knew that the informal ion « M conveyed through Renter'* agency. Having perused Ibo paragraphs—there aw two supplied by Reuter, wo have ceased to wonder at the bno of the Daily JVciw« For tho benefit of oar reader* wo •publish elsewhere the paragraph* exactly a* they appeared in the great morning daily. For our own part, wo have hitherto looked upon Router** duty a* confined to the chronicling of facta. Bnt when w® find hi* agent* a**«rting that " the Go* vermneut ha* done it* utmost to bring the Native* to reason,” wo must come to the conclusion that sometime* they send opinion*. In this inutanco It 1* a Ministerial opinion. Again, the Proclamation was not made public till October 20, yet Reuter** agent, telegraphing to London on the 22nd of the same month, declared that "Public opinion in the Colony i* strongly In favour of the action taken by Government.*’ On that day the drift of public opinion, which had had no time to express itself, wa* a matter of opinion. It was tho Ministerial opinion that the public would endorse the Ministerial policy. The Ministerial journals, however, alt inventively said that public opinion waa already in favour of that policy. This Ministerial opinion it Is which Router's agent has sent. Upon tho Ndtive question, and from the Ministerial point of view, Renter’s agent was explicit enough. The return of Sir Arthur Gordon ho dismissed in three lines. Homo readers were not told that tho return was sudden, but to tome extent not unexpected, and that there was a certain amount of awkwardness in tho circumstance for the Government. That was a fact, not an opinion at all. But tho fact was Ministerially inconvenient—" unsuitable,” is the correct term —and it was not sent. It is now plain why Mr Bryce wanted to keep the correspondents out of Paribaka. Ministers have sard that they did not wish sensational accounts to get Home to frighten tho British public. Tho loot is plain that they did not want unbiassed straightforward accounts to interfere with their statement, which Renter's agent would have been complaisant enough to forward as his own. As everything passed off quietly, it did not matter very much, comparatively, what was sent. Had the issue of the famous sth of November been different, the Ministerial precaution, had it not been foiled, would have been very useful. Mr Bryce ridicules tho idea of trying to be secret in the presence of 2000 troops and as many Natives. He knows perfectly well that nobody would believe the Natives; and that 2000 men posted about in different places, intent on their orders, and unable to see anything except in their immediate front, would amongst them give hopelessly contradictory accounts of everything. Mr Bryce will, therefore, not be surprised that nobody has believed his peculiar explanation at the Wanganui banquet. In this matter we do not think Renter's agent will telegraph Home that public opinion in Colony is against Mr Bryce. Mr Bryce and his colleagues know quite well how to make public opinion, not only through Renter for the English public, but nearer home through other channels, whose hatred of " unsuitable ” items is notorious.