Growing Grass - Feeding Britain

The wool period was responsible for opening up large areas of the South Island and created a new class of land owners. By the end of the 1860's most of the South Island was owned by a relatively small number of families. The Sheep stations were enormous with tens of thousands of sheep supplying vast quantitie's of wool, but relatively little meat. It turns out Merino meat is not very tasty. Apart from parts of the Wairarapa and the Hawkes Bay sheep farming made little impact in the North island, due in part to the less suitable heavily forested land and the reluctance of Maori to sell their land.

The confiscations and the Land Court would in the main remove the Maori from this equation, but the forest would slow down any development.By the 1870's the growth in Britains population and its increased earning power created a demand for better quality food from around the world, increasingly they demanded meat - fresh or frozen. Argentina had already sent shipments across the Atlantic with some success. Australia sent its first shipment in 1871, giving sheep breeders in New Zealand hope that they to could establish a new industry.

The voyage of the 'Dunedin' in 1882 is accorded little real significance in our history certainly less than it deserves, and yet it is the watershed/tipping point in our history.Only one carcass was rejected at the end of that first voyage, and reports were very favourable. So successful was this venture that British farmers demanded that shipments be labelled as 'New Zealand Mutton'. Initially we sent only Merino and mainly mutton, but quickly adapted to british demand for lamb. This worked both ways, the British got tastier meat in small (oven size) portions, we got to send more carcasses which were worth more. We also changed the breeds of sheep, Merino remained on some Runs producing high quality wool, while Corriedale and other breeds were producing a mix of wool and meat. In 1882 we sent 35,000 carcasses, by 1900 it was 3.5m per annum.

The downstream effect of refrigeration lay in the new industry surrounding the killing and processing of the meat. Refrigeration led to Railways to ship the meat and Cool stores to keep the meat, under the Vogels schemes, road and rail became a necessity to transport the meat to port where it was stored.While the main trunk line connected the main centers, branchline's were used to connect the hinterland to the ports.In many respects refrigeration created a new demand for land, but land was still hard to find. However the 'Long Depression' which arrived in 1879 with the collapse of the Bank of Glasgow had already begun to impact with many of the stations falling into financial hardship. The new exports helped but many were to over stretched and became bankrupt. It would take the Liberals to free up land for the 'little' man.