The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Sept. 1. WHY NOT ?

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 23, 1 September 1894, Page 8

The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Sept. 1. WHY NOT ?

“ So Government’s going to give the farmers cheap money, are they ?” So queried an esteemed visitor from the country the other day, and then continued his parable thus : have no fault to find with that —not a bit of it, but what we would sooner have is a better return for our produce. Secure us that, and we will dispense with State aid. Anyway, it will be a good while in coming, and while we’re waiting- for it I think the Agricultural Department might stop sending out so many leaflets on slugs and bugs and what not, and try an experiment that, if successful, would lift us out of the slough of despond in which we are now labouring.” Here our visitor, who was evidently “ possessed ” of an idea, paused, and was invited to unburden himself. He did. “ I have been thinking a good deal about the frozen meat trade lately. There’s not much in it, either for freezing companies or growers, now-a-days. Take the position of the grower. In Southland lately fat wethers have been selling at from 12s 6d to 13s 6d each, and if they were put through the freezing- companies’ hands the return is even less satisfactory. I see the experiment of sending Home live bullocks is to be tried, How why shouldn’t we extend the scope of the experiment and send Hew Zealand sheep Home alive, to be sold at Islington and other markets along with the English-grown animal F You often hear the great passenger steamers described as ‘ floating palaces.’ Well, why not convert some of the huge cargo boats into floating sheep pens P Supposing the farmers of Southland were in a position to ship say, 30,000 sheep at stated intervals, don’t you think some of the large shipping companies would find ways and means and vessels to meet them P Frozen sheep are now taken Home for 5s a carcase, not at all an excessive charge when it is remembered that the steamers in the trade are fitted up with costly refrigerating machinery and have to carry a large quantity of coals. Take live sheep instead of ‘ stiff ’uns,’ and you at once get rid of the refrigerating plant and secure much of the space now required for coal bunkers. Even after getting their sea legs sheep would probably make indifferent sailors, and we will allow another 10s per head for the accommodation, feeding, and attention required, and suppose that for 15s per head live sheep could be shipped from the Bluff and landed at Home. Fat wethers have lately been averaging there £2 Is 6d, and lambs from 29s to 365. But say the average is £2. Deduct the cost of shipment (15s) and this would leave £1 ss.

From this a further reduction of 5s might be made for insurance, commission, etc., and this would leave the grower the handsome pi ice of £l per head for his fat wethers. It might even be possible to * ship half-fats-and ‘ top-off ’ on the trip. Other countries may be nearer the world’s markets than Hew Zealand, but none of them can beat us in the production of the raw material—we could easily supply oats and turnips cheaply and in abundance for all the ‘ marine sheep pens ’ from the colonies. The United States and Canada send their sheep alive for sale in England, and why not we ? I know the distance is much greater, but every day science is practically annihilating time and. space, and why not in commerce as well as other things P If a Yankee can devise an apparatus for transmitting facsimiles of handwriting and pictures over the wires from Hew York to London—l think it is called a teleautograph—-it should be an easy matter to transport a flock of sheep over 13,000 miles or so of sea water. But there! lam at the end of my tether. Put what I have said in the paper, and see what comes of it.” We have kept faith with our enthusiastic friend, and will leave our readers to judge whether there is, or is not, anything in the idea outlined above. Stranger things have certainly come to pass, and it was never mere true than it is to-day that the “ old order changeth, giving place unto the new.’