COMMUNICATION WITH NEW ZEALAND.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 336, 4 March 1884, Page 2

COMMUNICATION WITH NEW ZEALAND.

■ ■ ■» ■■ — (' London Times,' January 4.) New Zealand has now been brought within forty days' steaming of the Thames. The fact ia peculiarly interesting having regard to the development of the resources of the Colony and the food supplies of the Home Country. TUe steamship Tongariro, which has recently accomplished the feat of making the journey in this remarkably short space of time, is fitted to bring to this country 14,000 carcases of sheep each voyage ; and the New Zealand Shipping Company, Who own her, have contracted te land in London during tb,e year just opened as many as 220,000 sheep, or upwards of 17,000,0001h of mutton. The Tongariro is the first vessel built for the direct steam service between j this country and New Zealand. A second steamer, the Aorangi, is now making her first outward trip, and a third, the Ruapehu, is loading in the Royal Albert Dock to be deßpatoh.ee) abqut the 9fch inst. They are each upwards of about 4,000 tons register and of nearly 4,000 horse power. They have been built by Messrs John Elder and Co., of Fairfield Yard, Govan, who are under contract to build two more of greater size and power for the Bame line. The vessels are constructed tp accqmmqojate eighty firstclass, eighty second-class and t\»o hundred and fifty third class passengers. The fittings are equal in character and finish to those of steamers intended for the Atlantic service. The saloons are spacious and handsomely d^ooraj;ed ? th,e vessels are lighted throughout bj tfye e}e,ctric Hghi qn the double system — that is to say, a pertain section of lamps throughout the ship remain lighted all the night, while others will be shut off at a stated hour ; but in eyGvy \ nsf ance each lamp can be extinguished at will." $>ae.h vesse.l hag a Jadies' drawingroom sumptuqusly with' amber plush, arid panelled witty maple or walnut and teek. There is a second drawing-room devoted exclusively to ladies and bath accommodation in abundance. The Ruapehu h,as a couple of deck cabins of unusual comfort. Tft ev ftVP Blapg4 } n $he centre of the vessel, and ' ar.e entered, frqm a cov-ered promenade. They are provided w.ith a wardrobe and several large drawers sufficient to enable the p^ssenprs to, dispense with their trunks during the" voyftga, T&fi upper berth in these cabins is hinged, and duping fhe day may be shut into the dividing partition of which it forma apart. The fact of its existence is wholly concealed, except for the silver-pjated handle used for drawing it out. The panelling in these cabins is all of maple and teak ? 'and a pair jpf thorn v/ould accommodate a family 'to' perfection. The engines of these vessels are compound, of two cylinders supplied by thi-ee doubleended steelrboilers, forking up to 1 101 bto the square inch. The experiment of a direct stenm service has been tried by the New Zealand .Shipping Company during the past year by chartered vessels, .and the trade to the Colony has responded fully to %c facilities offered. The year opened with promise of a rnqni hly steam service, but fifteen steamers have been despatched to these ports frqm London during the year, and from now onward a fort r nightly steam service is announced, Some idea of the change this will make in the life of the colony may be gathered from the fact that np to the close of 1872 the direct service was by sailing vessel alone, occupying ninety days on the voyage. The outwapd' freight; b,y ]these yessGl§> ia almost exclusively of manufactures, phs fyqn}eward of food products. The most recent returns published by the New Zealand Government are those for 1882, issued Ist November. They show a most extraordinary development of the resources of the Colony. The sheep in New Zealand numbered at the close of 1882 jfe ; 2Ba,ojl)o ,ojf jp increase of 800.000 on the previous year!' South' '^Yalei-! is the pnly colony' thai ' Gan. "coast; a > larger" ntmbef. Queensland and Victoria have fewer, but New Zealand excels them all in the acreage under cultivation. She has 5,651,255 acres of land under crop, which is only 35,000 fibres less than is being cultivated in all the rest oi'tfy Austrian polonies put together. It should- be" mentioned 'that land in these polonies js con sicjlereii und% cultivation 'if It has boga/ spjf/n w'ifV artificial grasses 'without having been ploughed, ftufc U^kvll j^ree'a'nd a-half million acres have actually been ploughed in New Zealand. The yield is also very high. As much as twenty-six bushels to the acre is given as the average of the jyheat crop ; while Victoria shows only nine, Boiith AufitjralU 4 fojjshelg 131 b, and New Sonth Wales IS bushels 3plb/' ■"■ " The growth and preparation of sheep for the London market is carried on 'as systematically as £he manufacture of pigs in Cinqin- i nati. . It is only t&Vfinest that we/sent here, for the very simple reason that the inferior animals would not pay for their carriage They have come from a cross between Leicester and Southdowns, and are allowed to approach their'fourth year before they are killed for exportation. From' tfre time they are stripped of their skins', beheaded! arid 'pleanseti. they 'are not touched by the hand | THey ate hi*rig f rota a rail in a cool chamber, and as soon as they liavs becij reduced to the temperature of that cnambei 4 , they are moved along the rail into a second and cooler chamber, 'and ihence to a tturd, still colder. By this means they .aj. e cooled gradually and made fit for the freezing chamber. J£ copied too Rapidly the meat is injured. Wheat* frozen.

as hard ns a rock they fire jda^fefl in c-uivfn bags, which arc marked arul lnb-:lle<J, an 'l ihey nro then tra lsforrod to tho lofrigerc'i'ing chambor on board the ship. They ar« pv-k n /l one upon another as olosoly fi^ f-hcir rigil nature will permit ; the op^nin,^ botwoun fho canvag^cs allow of sutti'-Ao.nt circulation of. air, and they arrive in a perfectly Hounrl coTiditioii. Tf'thc freezing has beon properly done throughout, the shcop. on arriving in London, may be regarded :i-s one day killed. It appears to be necessary not only to cool fV>'vn gradually before froe/.ing, but to thaw ! i ■ ;: 'ir manner. If the carcaso i? taken iroui the freezing chamber and at once exposed to the ordinary temperature, the interior fat will decompose from the effects of the sudden change. It is necessary also to liang tho meat the ordinary tima to Vu'inj^it into condition after it has been thawed. Users of New Zealand mutton, knowing its origin, are apt to use it as quickly as possible for fear it should not keep. When properly dealt with, this is an error. We obi-ervecl recently a lejz of muttou which had been in this country six days, and therefore, which must have been killed eight weeks before. The bone was full of marrow, quite fresh and delicate to the taste. It was from a lot of 28,000 sheep landed in London ! on one day just before Christmas last. What became of them we can only surmise, but it is very difficult to procure New Zealand mutton as such in any market. The value of prime sheep in New Zealand is 2d per lb ; the carriage here costs another 2d, and supplementary charges bring the price to something between 5d and 6d, at which price the meat is handed to the salesman. The retail er buys what he believes to be homegrown mutton at an average of lOd per lb. The subject is one of great interest to the consumer, tut the distribution of imported frozen meat remains in the hands of the ordinary middle-man, and it is not yet become a matter of sufficient interest to any individual to take it out of the regular channels. The railway communication in the island is being added to w!tb considerable rapidity. There are at present about 1400 miles of Government railway open besides private lines. The public debt of the island has been incurred largely by the construction of these works. A new railway " is . now projected by private capitalists to connect the I east and west coast of the Middle Island. ; This will bring the minerals of • the west coast to the grain-producing districts of the east. The dapitaiists concerning themselves in this project are also intimately associated with the development of the district served by the New Zealand Shipping Cbmpany. The imports and exports of the Colony have largely increased of late. In 1872 the imports were valued at L 5,102,95 1; in 1882 they had risen to L 8,699,270. The.- / expprts in 1872, including gold, were vartied 5 ! 'at " L 5, 190,665, and in 1882 they had risen to L(j,653,008 ; but the export of gold had fallen off during the decade, and was small in 1882. The population is now about half-a-miilipn in 1874 it was 295,808. The death rate appears to be very light. The return for 1882 shows only 11*19 per 1000 as compared with 20.5 for England. The living births registered ia the colony during 1882 numbered ] 9,000, or 37.32 per 1000 of the population. This appears to be a great reduction on the proportion of former years.: ;lip'lß74 it was GO.OI, but the marriages have been less.