NEW ZEALAND 



53 



lambs. These are fanciful ways of putting the matter, no 

 doubt, but they give a striking idea of the vast equipment that 

 has been provided for carrying on the trade. 



"The position, then, is that the country is splendidly equipped 

 wdth killing and freezing power and with storage capacity. 

 Nothing but a lucrative trade could have prompted all this rapid 

 development. There may indeed be some suggestion on the 

 face of the figures of the equipment being overdone. But it 

 has to be remembered that a freezing house plant must be equal 

 to the maximum daily demand upon it in the best of good seasons, 

 or else it does not adequately sei*ve the requirements of its 

 district or its clientele. But such maximum call upon it only 

 obtains for a more or less limited season when the grass is at its 



tiRoup OF Fat Bullocks, New Zealand, 



best, then the supply of stock gradually falls back to a fraction 

 only of what the plant can deal with, but if a given freezing 

 house is not equal to handling the stock naturally falling to it 

 during the heaviest fattening season, the stock will find its way 

 to some competing works. Put ijt another way, the supply of 

 fat stock must be variable and uncertain, hence this surplus 

 equipment for dealing with a maximum, and not only an 

 average supply. Several times in the history of this business 



