1918.] The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 197 
138,000 and the lowest 75,000. So, presuming that these steamers were 
loaded to their full capacity all the year round (which they were not), they 
would be able to lift nearly 15,000,000 56 lb. carcases (or say 14,000,000 
60 lb. carcases) from New Zealand per annum. But, as the total shipments 
from New Zealand in 1914 were about 6,000,000 carcases, it is evident that 
there was ample shipping-space then for all the meat available. 
But the war has greatly changed the position. The British Admiralty 
has commandeered practically the whole of the mercantile marine of the 
British Empire, and a number of our insulated steamers have been sunk 
by the enemy or wrecked. On the. other hand, new steamers are in course 
of construction, and if these can be completed within a reasonable time 
they will more than compensate for those lost. 
[S.Taylor. Dept. Agriculture, photo, 
Fig. 4.—Carcases divided, as shown in fig. 3, stacked in a ship’s hold. 
The number of insulated steamers carrying meat from Australia was 71, 
with carrying-capacity of 3,643,000 carcases ; and from South America 
69, with carrying-capacity of 5,672,800 carcases. The average carrying- 
capacity of Australian meat-steamers was only 51,000 carcases, as com¬ 
pared with 82,000 on boats from South America and nearly 100,000 from 
New Zealand. 
In addition to the vessels regularly engaged in the New Zealand, Aus¬ 
tralian, and South American trade, there were in 1914 some 27 steamers 
fitted with refrigerating machinery but not then engaged in carrying frozen 
meat to the United Kingdom. These 27 boats had a capacity for 3,191,900 
carcases, so that we had a total of 238 insulated steamers engaged in the 
frozen-meat trade of the world, capable of carrying 19,415,100 carcases per 
trip, the average being 82,000 carcases. 
If the war has done no other good it certainly has caused the erection 
of enormously increased frozen-meat storage in the Dominion, the total 
storage now being equal to over six million 601b. carcases, or just about 
