158 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [May 
Factories were in operation in various parts for boiling down for tallow 
and for preserving in tins for export, and an immense number of sheep 
were thus worked off. But with improvement in the breeds of sheep and 
the large annual increase in our flocks it soon became evident that some 
other process would have to be adopted for disposing of the better classes 
of crossbreds, which were then becoming very numerous. As showing to 
what extent the boiling-down process had been carried on it may be men¬ 
tioned that during the nine years ended January, 1881, an average of 
30,000 sheep per year had been treated at the Washdyke factory, and about 
this time a boiling-down factory was started at Templeton. The number 
of sheep in the Provincial District of Canterbury for the year 1880 was 
returned at 3,487,220, being an increase for the year of 317,129. The 
tallow exported during that year from Canterbury amounted to 1,600 tons, 
while the number of sheep converted at the Templeton factory was 52,000, 
and 95,000 head were similarly treated at the Washdyke. 
Here, then, we had a great and increasing demand for meat food on the 
one side of the world, and an enormous and prolific supply on the other, 
yet separated by half the circumference of the globe ; and the problem 
was to find a means of preventing natural decay while transporting. 
Very many methods of preserving meat were tried, some of which were 
utter failures while others were in a measure successful; but real success 
was not attained until refrigeration was adopted and improved upon. It is 
difficult to realize that only about thirty-five years have elapsed since one of 
the most important of the world’s industries was inaugurated, resulting in 
the enormous and increasing trade of the present day. And yet the whole 
of this great industry, and to a very great extent the general prosperity 
and advancement of New Zealand, hangs on the slender piston-rod of a 
refrigerating-machine. 
Imagine what this country would be like if we were unable to export 
our surplus meat, butter, cheese, &c. Instead of land being worth up to 
£70 and £80 per acre, it would probably not be worth as many shillings, 
and stock would be practically unsaleable. Instead of prosperous and 
growing towns such as Palmerston North, Feilding, &c., we would have 
little more than backblocks settlement. We cannot, therefore, think too 
highly of the services rendered to Australasia by the pioneers of the industry 
who risked so much, and sometimes ruined themselves financially, in the 
endeavours to solve the great problem of successful preservation of animal 
food. All honour to the brave and resourceful men who, despite many 
failures and apparently insuperable difficulties, persevered and finally 
brought the industry to a successful conclusion ! 
Referring briefly to some of the prominent pioneers in Australia, we 
have Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, who arrived in Sydney in about 1838, and 
founded the well-known firm of Goldsborough, Mort, and Co., establishing 
the first freezing-works in the world at Darling Harbour, Sydney, in 1861. 
Mr. Mort spent a large fortune (about £80,000) in experiments in connection 
with frozen-meat export. 
Then there was James Harrison, who emigrated to Sydney in 1837, 
who was originally a journalist, but who took up land and experimented 
in ice-making machinery. In 1851 he erected the first refrigerator in the 
world, and at Melbourne in 1873 he exhibited several carcases of sheep 
that had been frozen for six months and were then in good condition for 
food. Like Mort, he spent a large fortune in experimenting and was 
ruined. 
