Qrowth and Development of the Trade in Frozen Mutton. 219 
the prices of mutton forming part of one and tlie same cargo. 
The freezing is here usually done at a fixed charge to the 
sheepowner according to the number sent, the whole being 
packed and conveyed for sale to such agent as the shipper 
may dii-ect ; but this is not invariable. One of the companies 
whose success has been greatest — the Gear Meat Company — 
certainly buys sheep on its own account and takes the risk of 
the market here ; but this practice, which gives strength to the 
River Plate trade, is not usual in New Zealand. 
At the time of the last census in 1885, New Zealand had, I 
believe, 44 separate boiling-down and freezing works, employing 
838 men, and stated to be turning out for local consumption or 
for export provisions roughly valued at more than half a million 
sterling per annum. This figure is now largely exceeded, and 
new works are in various places erected. The businesses of 
preserving meat and of freezing mutton are really separate, and 
only a portion of companies are largely engaged in the latter. 
It may be some assistance to those who are not familiar with 
the different portions of New Zealand whence our supplies come, 
or with the names of the companies that may be regarded as most 
largely engaged in the frozen trade, that I should here tabulate 
the chief businesses : — 
On tlie North Island 
Messrs. Nelson Brothers, Limited. 
North British and Hawke's Bay Re- 
frigerating Company 
Wellington Meat Export Company 
Gear Meat Company 
New Zealand Frozen Meat and Stor- 
age Company 
Ou the South Island 
Canterbury Frozen Meat and Dairy 
Produce Export Company 
Christchurch Freezing Company 
Oamaru Refrigerating Company 
New Zealand Refrigerating Company 
South Canterbury Refrigerating 
Company 
Southland Freezing Company 
Some of these are more continually engaged than others, 
and the character of the supplies in the different provinces 
varies much. The last company on the list has been recently 
doing almost nothing in the frozen trade. But it is charac- 
teristic of the frequent changes which varying local conditions 
produce, that, since the close of 1888, a steamship left Auckland 
Harbour carrying not only 130 carcasses of beef, but also 2,860 
sheep and 1,900 lambs — in all, a weight of some 2,700 cwts. 
This may indicate a revival of trade in this part of the North 
Island ; but the success or failure of the enterprise as a whole 
can hardly be judged of by companies which, not being favour- 
ably placed for the direct London steamers, have not been 
prominent in the mutton trade. 
Of the companies I have named three alone exported, 
during their respective financial years last ended, 473,000 
