FROZEN MEAT TRADE IN AUCKLAND.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 37, 11 January 1884, Page 2

FROZEN MEAT TRADE IN AUCKLAND.

[j?aß Association txLSGBAMj. Auckland, Jan, 10;. With respect .to the conveyance of . sheep from Hawke's Bay, Fiances Hacks, who has been largely’ engaged in driving sheep from Hawke’s Bay to Waikato, and who was employed to lay off paddocks between, Hawke’s Bay and Lichfield, has. sent the following communication to Mr. Banks, Managing Director of the New Zealand Frozen Meat and Storage Co Auckland, Jan. Sth, 1784. J, Banks, Esq., Managing Director of the Frozen Meat and Storage Co. Sir,—lt is scarcely necessary io. remark -hat, in starting a freezing company, you and others familiar with the kind ot Stock raised in this and the adjoining districts, calculated upon drawing your supplies directly or indirectly, A considerable portion of the sheep are used here for local consumption, For this purpose, at whatever’ cost, supplies from there will have to increase, because all our flocks are not keeping pace in tb.efv growth with the requirements of the markrt. It is quite another matter, however, whether, under existing CircunisfanMjfiit will My...t.q ..bring sheep here from .that dlijriet 16. be . frozen for export. For this purpose the London market must fix the value of the sheep in Hawke’s Bay j consequently, the difference in cost of sending them to the freezing depots of Auckland and Wellington must determine which place they shall be exported from. Wellington is only half the distance by sea that Auckland is from Hawke’s Bay. Having this advantage, is it at all likely that Wellington people will be so blind to their own interests as to allow the surplus stock of the largest Sheep-prOducing district iii the Island to,be .taken from them for waht.iif a saleable concession being made to a freezing company, us has been done in Auckland. Circumstances at present are equally favorable to Wellington for taking sheep overland. The distance is shorter, and the road runs through better country to the nearest point of the railway than is the ease with Auckland, and unless this advantage in met by making paddocks between Hawke's Bay ano Lichfield; it cannot pay to bring a single shspp to Auckland to, lie exported; It if true that; under very iavorable circumStances, sheep have been brought through without injury, and these were old.sheep, It fe proved that Out of ,600 brought straight through from Ifawlie’e Bay and eent by way of Matania, only one was rejected as being Unfit for freezing. It is further proved that, when the men understand their work, sheep can be yarded and paddooked without Injury. The sheep in question were brought over with 1,500 ewes, and yarded eight or nine times on the road, and were put through the yards and drafted from the ewes at Cambridge; With regard to sites selected, for the paddocks, and difficulty about the sheep being able to reach them from day to day, I may say that they are in all cases either part of or close to Old sheep-camps, and that with a dozen years' experience I Have neVer known a sound mob of fat Or store sheep fail to reach them; The difficulty has always been with lame sheep, and what to do with them. With paddocks this would be done away with. The best answer that can be given as to whether the proposed paddocks would be made to take grass or not, is the fact that without being sown, most of the old sheepcamps are covered with rich clover. Of course this is the result of heavy manuring; but then, how long would it take tq make paddocks of two or three hundred acres each jiist as rich, and large mobs ot sheep constantly camping on them? I have nd hesitation in saying that in a very short time those paddocks would be capable of properly feeding on the road a. much larger number of sheep than Hawke’s Bay can send us; whereas now it is a well-known fact to every farmer, butcher, and auctioneer in this district that sheep as a rule suffer great injury in coming across, and, consequently, are greatly depreciated in value; and, being so, is it possible to over-estimate the Value to farmer, coneumer, and freezing conipany. of the means which, it was shown in a previous report, ean be obtained at a comparatively small cost. That would practically buy at the large breeding and fattening districts of Hawke’s Bay, close to our borders and to our railway. What I have further to say does not necessarily form a part of these questions, my object is to show advantage can be best taken of our position in dealing with the question of supplies from Hawke’s Bay; but, assuming that paddocks are made, and that sheep can be brought through without injury, there remains a still more important question as to whether our farmers can compete successfully with the West Coast for surplus store sheep in Hawke’s Bay. Anyone familiar with the two districts must know that our only chance of being able to do so lies in our having a superior turnip-growing district, and an extraordinary quantity of those could not be grown unless previous arrangement were made with breeders to deliver sheep when required, The difficulty (that of price) hitherto in the way of such an arrangement no longer exists, because the London market price of mutton must give fat and store sheep a relative value at par lb. as much so as the price of flour governs the price of wheat. With this difficulty once settled, it becomes as much an object to the seller as to the buyer to arrange for the delivery of hia stock at a fixed time. Later in the season, in a heavily-stocked district like Hawke's Bay, subject at times to long droughts, such arrangements would soon become the rule, and, if so Waikato rather than the West Coast, would be in the best position to take advantage of it, because the beat grass-growing district cannot reckon upon having a certain quantity of feed at a given time, with the same certainty that turnip-growers can. The question now comes, how a large number of sheep can be arranged for and moved from the lands of the breeders to the farmer, and from the farmer to the freezing-shed in the cheapest way. That the old method of dealing will have to be abandoned is beyond question, and we look at what has been and must be the result of it. Let us suppose that store wethers are worth to the breeder 10s. each, which weigh say an an average 401bs. each, which would be 3d per pound for them ; that after keeping them three months on turnips in Waikato they weigh 60 lbs. eaeh, and that they are worth 3d. per lb. or 15s. each in Auckland. The expenses connected with them are as follows: 50,000 sheep at 10s, each, £25,000 ; when fat, worth 15s. each, £37,500 ; commission for buying 6d, £1,250 ; cost of driving to Waikato Id, £2,500 ; cost of selling at auction in Waikato 6d, £1,250 ; speculator or owner’s profit 6d, £1,250 ; trucking to Auckland (including loading) ld„ £2,500 ; cost of selling in Auckland, 6d, £1,250 ; the farmer gets for three month’s feed, Is, £2,500; total, £37,500. Now, let us see what it can be done for under one agency and paddocks for the sheep. Coming through 50,000 sheep at 10s. each, £25,000; cost of purchasing, £3,000; eight men’s wages for six months, at £3 10s. a-week, £7OO ; 500 sheep lost, £250; interest at 10 per cent, on £lO,OOO (paddock), £1,000; cost of slaughtering in Waikato, at 6d. per head, £1,250; railway, freight to Auckland, 7d. a carcase, £1,458; farmer’s profit, Be. a-head, or 3d. per week, £7.542; total, £87,500. What the result of such a system, if acted upon on a large scale, to upcountry farmers, is not difficult to imagine. With regard to sheep being sent to Auckland to be frozen, from the West Coast, there is this difficulty in the way—they cannot be brought direct to the freezing-shed by sea or land. At Wellington they can do both, which makes all the difference.