5 JUNE 1982, Page 19

One hundred years ago

A great feat has been accomplished by `the Bell Coleman Mechanical Refrigera- tion Company,' in bringing over the car- cases of 5,000 sheep, at a temperature of 20° below zero, all the way from New Zealand, in the vessel Dunedin, belong- ing to the Albion Shipping Company that very low temperature having been maintained through a voyage of ninety- eight days, a fair portion of which was under a tropical sun. The meat is said to be in as fine condition as though it had been English mutton. The Agent- General of New Zealand, who writes an interesting letter on the subject to Mon- day's Times, asserts that last year New Zealand had more land laid down in English grasses than all Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia put together, and that New Zealand can send us plenty more mutton in the same way. But what he does not tell us, and what is of the first impor- tance, is the cost at which the mutton can be offered in the English market.

Spectator, 3 June 1882,