THE EXPERIMENTAL SHIPMENT OF CHEESE.

Patea Mail, 7 September 1881, Page 4

THE EXPERIMENTAL SHIPMENT OF CHEESE.

The London Manager of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company has forwarded to Christchurch the following report of the experimental shipment df cheese which was sent from Canterbury to London by the ship Orari:— “ The Orari arrived in dock on Jnly 1, and on the following day proceeded to discharge cargo. We were present daring the landing of 242 cases, and subsequently saw the remainder of the consignment. The principal reason of the failure of this shipment to arrive here in the good order anticipated by shippers, was nndonbtedly the heat to which it was exposed in the ship’s hold. Captain Mosey reports that the arrangements for cooling the temperature of that part of the vessel in which the cheese was stowed, proved on trial to be defective, certain chemical details having been overlooked, by means of which the application of the freezing mixture became inoperative. On his return to Canterbury he will explain the whole matter to yon for the benefit tuents ; and in the meantime, we have obtained from him a copy of the journal that he, kept during the voyage, recording the temperature day by day. ** In addition to the heat of the ship, a farther cause of damage lay. in the ‘ fact; that many of the cheeses, of which ' the consignment was composed, were 'immature and unripe' for shipment. These gave way at an early period of the voyage, and, by infection, materially contributed towards the impending decomposition of the remainder. When the Orari broke bulk, the stench arising* from the hold gave ample evidence of the condition of the shipment. When the cases were landed, this evidence was folly confirmed. Most of the cheeses * were blackened, some were hard ontside and full of soft spongy matter within, others were crambly and broken, and manjr more were almost entirely in a liquid state. The cases were covered with slime, and swarmed with maggots ; and flies. We had great difficulty in finding storage room in London wherein the cheese conld be inspected by buyers, wharfingers refusing to take it in on the ground that it would seriously prejudice their stocks by contamination. Finally, however, it was brought under the notice of the trade, and after several ineffectnal attempts to induce metro-

politan buyers to purchase, it was sold to a provincial house at 18s per cwt.” From the temperature record kept by Captain Mosey it appears that there was very great variation, the range being from 56 degrees Fahrenheit to no less than 85 degrees. The thermometer was read four times a day, at eight o’clock in the morning and evening, at noon and at midnight, during the months of May and June, the lowest reading obtained after May 1 being 74 degrees. On May 22, Captain Mosey found that all the tins* used for the freezing mixture had corroded, and he thereupon substituted stone jars. It is abundantly evident that the plan adopted for cooling the atmosphere was altogether ineffectual, and that the variable quality of the cheese was productive of disastrous results.