WAIRARAPA AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 29, 12 August 1871, Page 4

WAIRARAPA AFFAIRS.

MEAT PRESERVING. The adjourned meet’ng of the shareholders and others interested in the Wairarapa Meat Preserving Company (Limited), will be held at the Rising Sun Hotel, Greytown, on Wednesday, August 16, at 3 o’clock, when it is hoped that there will be a large attendance. The object of the proposed company is to fix a minimum price for beef, as the Boiling. Down Company has already done for mutton. It. does not follow that because no sheep of any consequence have been boiled down during the past season, that the establishment has not proved a success. If no sheep were boiled down in future, it would pay the sheepowners to keep the works from going to ruin, because while they exist, and are kept in working order, the butchers are aware that when the market price for fat wethers falls below r the minimum, it will pay the sheepowner better to reduce them to tallow than to send them to market. This minimum

price for fat wethers is about 9s per head ; below which, for this description of mutton, the price cannot fall. A knowledge of this fact is alike beneficial to the grazier and the dealer, so far as mutton is concerned; they are both aware what is the lowest possible price it can ever realise ; though of course it will still remain the object of the one to secure an advance on this price, and of the other to prevent it if possible. But if the sheepowner could not boil down his fat stock, he would have no alternative but to sell it at any price the butcher might choose to offer, so long as the supply of such stock exceeded the demand. It has been ascertained that if preserved mutton maintained its present price in the London market, it would pay the sheepowner to preserve it, rather than resort to the boiling-down process. This fact, and the circumstance that beef, unlike mutton, has not been affected in price, nor likely to be, by the operation of boiling down establishments, though it would be if turned into an article for export, either by the salting or the tinned process, have together originated the present mqvement. There are many stockowners who doubt whether the salting process would answer ; hut if it will pay to salt meat in Europe, where the price of fresh meat is so high, it would surely pay to salt it in New Zealand. Though beef preserved fresh by the tinned process, would probably fetch nearly double the price of salt beef, it does not follow 7 , when the capital required, and the expense of carrying out the two processes are considered, that a larger net revenue would be derived by the tinned process than would be obtained by the ordinary method. This has yet to be ascertained. It has, I believe, been already ascertained that while fat beef can be cured by careful salting and packing, it cannot, if too fat, be preserved in tins. On the other hand, mutton is not good salted, while it can be preserved in tins, in first-rate condition. Under these circumstances it may probably be found desirable to carry on the three processes, of boiling-dowD, meat-preserving, and beef-curing, in one establishment, when what was not adopted for one process could be subjected to either of the others. I to no special knowledge on the subject, and the foregoing observations have been by remarks I have heard from others, who have had good means and opportunities of giving reliable opinions on the subject. It is one in which both the large and small graziers in the Wairarapa are now taking an interest which I have never seen exhibited before with reference to any other question of public importance. I may add, that while it is generally believed here that one large meat preserving establishment would prove successful, both in keeping up the price of-fat stock and in paying fair dividends on the capital invested, it is very much doubted by those who have the best means of arriving at an accurate opinion on the subject whether the province, at present, is in the position to find either the capital or the raw material to start and keep in full work two establishments of the kind. For this reason, it has been suggested that the leading promoters of the two projects should make another effart to ascertain whether the ITutt and Wairarapa companies could not be amalgamated. It is to be hoped, for the success of the object both companies have

in view, that some such arrangement will be arrived at. If this is not done, there is, from all I can learn, every probability that if it fail in securing the general co-operation of the Wairarapa stockowners, the Ilutt project, at all events, will have to be abandoned. The question then is, will the promoters of the Hutt company unite with the promoters of the Wairarapa company, or decline to support an undertaking in the success of which the whole of the stockowners of the province have a common interest. NATIVE LAND COURT. This Court was opened by Judge Smith on Thursday, at the Court House Greytown. Them are a very 1 afge nurnber of land claims to be investigated during the present sittings of the Court. As is usual on such occasions, Greytown is crowded with Maoris, who are always accompanied by their wives and children, a custom which, it appears, they cannot abandon, and it is one which is rather beneficial than otherwise to the storekeepers. It is a custom which brings them customers. FEATHERSTON ROAD DISTRICT. A meeting of the ratepayers of this district was held at the Court House, Featherston, on Saturday, the 29th ult, S. Carkeek, Esq., J.P., in the chair. A letter was read from Mr Bunny to the effect that as it was possible the General Government grant for the current year would be apportioned to the several road districts according to the amount of rates levied therein, it would be advisable for them to fix the amount of rates to be levied at their present meeting, instead of adjourning the subject as heretofore. On the motion of C. Pharazyn, Esq., a lump sum uf £9O was voted, and, after an expression of opinion as Jo the lines of road which most required attending to had been given, the meeting separated. GREYTOWN ROAD BOARD. A meeting of this board was held at the British Volunteer Hotel on Saturday last, when it was resolved to at ouce convene the annual meeting of ratepayers to fix the rate for the ensuing year; hut as no rates have been paid in the district for several years past, it may again become a question for the decision of the Supreme Court whether there can be ratepayers when there have been no rates paid. To get over the difficulty last year the meeting was convened, on requisition, by a justice of the peace; but the hoard this year, fortified by the legal opinion of the late Provincial Solicitor, have resolved that there are ratepayers iu the district, and that they are qualified to vote, anything in the act to the contrary notwithstanding; not because they have paid rates, but because payment has not been demanded. In the face of three summonses, issued on the application of the collector against those who refused to pay rates when demanded, .how they can substantiate their statement it would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to make out. The case of the board against Hirschberg, which was sent to the Supreme Court on appeal, has n't yet been decided. In the meantime a sum of upwards of £4OO, received out of the General Government grant, is locked up, awaiting the decision of, or its division by, the lawyers. May I suggest to the Government that, in common courtesy, all papers printed by order of the Council relating to district road boards, and to the apportionment of the £SOOO grant, should be forwarded to the road boards for their information and guidance.