158 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



economic questions that great changes have taken place in 

 the industrial conditions of the people since then. At that 

 time the staple industries were in a depressed state. Nothing 

 appeared more unpromising than the rearing of sheep. Prices 

 were low, the wool barely sufficed to pay expenses of farming, 

 and there was little or no demand for sheep, whilst vast num- 

 bers were annually boiled down merely for their fat. But it 

 was at this time that applied science came to the rescue. The 

 preservation of foods of a perishable nature was receiving the 

 attention of scientists, and the discovery of the " chilling 

 process " in the conveyance of fresh meat between America 

 and England very soon led to the adoption of the " freezing- 

 chamber " for the conveyance of frozen mutton between 

 New Zealand and England. The application of elementary 

 physics in the production of cold air enabled those who knew 

 that putrefaction was stayed and all microbes destroyed at a 

 temperature below freezing-point to realise the great benefits 

 that must accrue by the introduction of machinery for the 

 preservation and conveyance of perishable products. It was 

 soon realised what an important bearing the preservation and 

 conveyance of perishable foods like meat would have upon the 

 markets of the world where meat was dear and was largely 

 consumed by the people. The discovery showed how it would 

 be possible for the industrial world in manufacturing centres 

 to benefit by this simple application of a scientific fact to the 

 conveyance of perishable products. But the discovery illus- 

 trated how nearly the producers of raw and of manufactured 

 products are dependent on one another if the highest benefits 

 are to be obtained by the application of science to production. 

 The preservation of perishable foods and their carriage from 

 country to country introduced a new factor in commerce, 

 and made possible a differentiation of production such as 

 could not have been continued under modern colonial con- 

 ditions but for the discovery that enables a balance to be kept 

 between the producers and consumers of perishable products. 

 A country like our own need have no excess of perishable 

 goods such as are indispensable to the maintenance and sup- 

 port of a high standard of civilised living. 



In the year 1882 the talk was of some means of disposing 

 of the excess of sheep, which at the time numbered about 

 thirteen millions. A new factor comes in and so modifies the 

 conditions that the social, the material, and the industrial 

 state of the country is affected, and at the same time the 

 " new factor " influences large communities separated from us 

 by thousands of miles of intervening ocean. We have a 

 glimpse here of the possibilities of the future when science 

 shall regulate production and constitute the foundation of 

 training in the upbringing of every child. 



