40 



Mr. Stkes asked what was the temperature on board the vessels? 

 Mr. Lang said that opened up a very great question as to the 

 exportation of fruit. The temperature of the cool chamber where 

 the fruit was carried should not be kept at under 40 or above 

 46°, but it often turned out in practice that when it arrived m 

 London docks the great mass of the fruit was frozen. In 

 fact he had been told by an eye witness that masses of 20 and 30 

 cases were frozen together when they were taken out. That was 

 the cause of all the mischief. There was no means of regulating 

 the temperature in the cool chamber. There was a thermometer 

 there, and the engineer in charge of the refrigerating chamber 

 was supposed to keep a record of the temperature throughout the 

 voyage ; but he had been in the cool chamber of the large mail 

 steamers, and as far as he could see there were no proper means 

 of ventilation. It was not the lowness of temperature, but the 

 ventilation that was so important. Being confined in a close 

 chamber the fruit gave off a certain amount of carbonic acid gas, 

 and that, condensing in the chamber, caused a premature ripening 

 of the fruit. In the cases they had sent fruit in lately they had 

 put a cleat on the bottom, so that there washalf-an-inch of space 

 between the boxes when they were stacked. Last year when he 

 was down at one of the vessels one of the officers assured him that 

 he could purchase a cas6 of fruit in Melbourne and put it in his 

 cabin on the voyage home, and that it would arrive in first-rate 

 order, showing that with plenty of ventilation fruit arrived all 

 right. He believed that before the export of fruit became a 

 success the method of carrying it would have to be radically 

 alt'ered. He did not believe in the ordinary cool chambers. He 

 was of opinion that if the ordinary hold of a vessel could be 

 ventilated so that a stream of fresh air could be introduced, driving 

 off the stagnant air, that would be sufficient. The temperature 

 did not matter so much. For instance, if apples were picked 

 in the middle of March they would be stored in an ordinary 

 fruit room where the temperature was about 55°, and they 

 would keep in perfect condition for three or four months, whereas 

 when put in a cool chamber, supposed to be 40°, they 

 went off rotten in six weeks. He met one of the largest 

 exporters of apples in Tasmania — Mr. Shoobridge, the well- 

 known grower — and found that he had come to the same 

 conclusion that properly-ventilated vessels were all that were 

 required for fruit carriage. The expense of sending a case of 

 fruit home was too high altogether, ranging from 3s. 9d. to 4s. 6d., 

 being 95s. the toil of 40 cubic feet. That was a prohibitive 

 price, leaving but a very small margin for the grower in Victoria. 

 They could not depend on getting more than 10s. or 12s. a case 

 in the London market for a quantity of fruit ; and the total 



