South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, MARCH, 16, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2492, 16 March 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, MARCH, 16, 1881.

While the question of establishing a frozen meat trade between New Zealand and London is being eagerly discussed in these latitudes, and the mutton-growers of Otago have been smiling benevolently on the prospects of the Bell-Coleman apparatus and exchanging compliments with the manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, the Government of New South Wales has set an example of promptitude which is worthy of all emulation. Instead of offering bonuses for sulphuric acid which no one can swallow, or beet sugar that nobody can manufacture and survive the ex-

periraent, or silk culture which is as admirably adapted for New Zealand as rice and tea growing, the New South Wales Government has led the way in the colonies, by securing a refrigerator of such ample dimensions that in the warmest day in summer it will keep the whole of the meat supply of Sydney as cool as a cucumber and as sweet as a nut. We say the step taken by the Cabinet of New South Wales is deserving of the highest commendation, for while other Governments and communities have been idling their time theorising and experimenting they have given the Bell-Coleman system their recognition and patronage in a practical and utilitarian form. They have had completed and tested, with entirely successful results, in the engineering establishment of Messrs D. and W. Henderson, Glasgow, a Bell-Coleman dry-air refrigerator of the largest dimensions hitherto attempted. The machine is capable of delivering 20,000 cubic feet of air per minute, reduced from a surrounding atmosphere of 80deg Farenheit to GOdeg under zero ; and in order to obtain the power required to produce that result two huge boilers, measuring each 28ft by 7ft Gin, have been made by Messrs Galloway, of Manchester. The apparatus has been constructed to the order of the New South Wales Government with the double object of preserving the meat supply of Sydney, estimated at 100 tons daily, and for the purpose of encouraging the meat export trade, to Europe. The Government of New South Wales have taken time by the forelock. While others have been speculating over the prospects of the frozen meat trade and the possible reproductiveness of joint stock refrigerators, they have recognised the public benefit that a fresh meat supply implies and they have ordered an apparatus that will no doubt prove a blessing to the citizens of their metropolis. It is equally satisfactory to learn that quite independent of any extraneous assistance, an interesting application of the Bell-Coleman machine, and one which will materially increase the comfort of passengers on long voyages, has been made and is in progress with various great ocean steamers. It consists in the use of machines of comparatively small capacity, called “ provision machines,” for the preservation of the ship’s meat stores, thereby dispensing with the nuisance of livestock on board, which, as every passenger knows, is a most unsatisfactory and unwholesome source of fresh food towards the close of a long voyage. The Orient Line steamer Orient, which sailed from London for Australia early in September, with upwards of 500 passengers, had her fresh meat and poultry, Ac., preserved throughout by a provision machine which further prepared a daily supply of tabic ice, all inia iuost satisfactory manner, The P. and O. steamer Kaisar-i-Hind has been fitted with a provision machine, the cold air from which refrigerates successively a moat chamber, a water-cooling chamber, a vegetable compartment, a wine-cooler, and a thawing chamber, the air passing in succession from one to the other till, coming near ordinary atmospheric temperature, it is dismissed into space. There is also, we understand, a prospect of some of Messrs Money Wigrara and Company’s fine vessels being fitted up with refrigerators, and specially placed at the disposal of the Now Zealand trade. If this is the case there should be no great necessity for the formation of companies. New Zealand has great climatic advantages over the Australian colonies, and with vessels properly fitted up there should be no great difficulty in carrying out an export trade in frozen meat, dairy produce, and other perishables during the winter months. Otago in the meantime having to depend on Canterbury for a portion of her meat supply is scarcely in a position to hold out great inducements to the promoters of frozen beef and mutton. As the Bell-Coleman apparatus, however, comes into general use, the necessity for special efforts on land will diminish, and wc have no doubt that a highly profitable and easily managed export trade will be developed. In tbc meantime tlie great object of those who desire to see the experiment successfully carried out should he to encotilth e laying on of the best steamers procurable, so that time, which is a great consideration, may be as far as possible economised.