H. —44a,

8 tons of fish. There is also provision for the manufacture of 4| tons of ice daily. Fish intended for storage is sent to the Co-operative Dairy Producers Freezing Co., Ltd., Wellington. Fish is never stored in Wellington for more than three months. The freezing charges are reasonable. The chilling-accommodation provided at Port Ahuriri is modern and eflective and quite capable of performing all the work necessary under the present marketing arrangements. For details of the plant, see Appendix N. On the present annual landings, and in consideration of the fact that gluts of fish seldom occur more than twice or thrice a year, there is no justification for any increased refrigerated storage in Napier. It would not be economical to erect plant to deal with the small quantities of fish sent to the Wellington firm for storage. Gisborne. No special accommodation at Gisborne for the storage of fish is provided. One chamber with a capacity of approximately four hundred cases, each 100 lb., is available at the local meat-freezing company's plant. This space is taken up by the wholesaler at a fixed annual rent of £50, but others may put fish in at a fixed price of |d. per pound for three months. It is doubtful if the amount of surplus fish in Gisborne warrants the erection of any further plant, as it might tend only towards the accumulation of stocks unless the whole of the marketing was under rigid supervision. Under the circumstances, the Committee has no recommendation to make. Whakatane: One small freezer owned by Mr. W. G. Wright is operated at Whakatane. It is a small Servel machine which is capable of producing 4 cwt. of ice per day and also cools a small chill-room. As the plant is not used for fish storage, no further details are supplied. Tauranga. At Tauranga two of the wholesale sheds have provision for refrigeration. As supplies are very short the plant is not operated at anything like full capacity. For details of the units, see Appendix N. Thames. At Thames there are four wholesale fish firms and each one has a freezer of some sort. Thames Fisheries, Ltd. —The freezing-space of this company is large—too large for the refrigeration units installed if the whole of the chambers were in operation, which they are not, quite a considerable portion of the space not being in use at the time of our inspection. It was stated that this plant was capable of dealing with the whole of the Thames supply ; it might be if the product was kept on the move in a normal manner, but any hold-up involving prolonged storage of a large proportion of the daily supply would soon cause the weaknesses to be revealed. The refrigerating units have only an output of refrigeration equal to 9 tons of icemaking capacity per day, and the total space for which these machines would have to provide refrigeration if the plant was in full operation is 15,618 cubic feet. It must be noted that, of the eight chambers, two totalling 4,050 cubic feet are only used as chill-rooms, which is all they are fit for, two others with a combined capacity of 3,564 cubic feet are not in use and would require renovation before they Could be brought up to the standard required, and finally there is a large store chamber of 4,320 cubic feet very lightly piped and not in use at the time of our inspection. This leaves the company with three up-to-date chambers of a total capacity of 3,702 cubic feet which are used as freezers. These three rooms, plus the large store, comprise the refrigeration which the company has at its disposal. At this plant all the rooms except the three freezers have wooden walls. This fault would not be serious where the freezingchamber floors are all concrete, but it is a factor which would prevent the passing of the plant as first class. The amount of refrigeration available is too low for such extensive capacity, more especially when it is remembered that to get the best results quick freezing of the fish is essential. In addition to the freezing-accommodation, there are two large ice-making tanks with a capacity of 9 tons of ice. We are of the opinion that the provision of refrigeration units with only a 9 ton ice capacity to keep these tanks in operation and at the same time to maintain the refrigeration of the rooms, even allowing only for the use of the freezers, store, and two chill-rooms, is inadequate. For details, see Appendix N. Taylor Bros., Thames. —At this plant there are two small refrigeration units and two chambers. One is used as a chill-room ; the other is not in use. The chambers were in a poor condition, having wooden walls and a wooden roof. The woodwork was found to be rotten in many places. The insulation appeared to be full of water, and water was dripping from holes in the roof lining. For details, see Appendix N. Shortland Fish Co., Thames.—At this plant there occurs again the problem of a comparatively small refrigeration unit —6 ton —which, were it in full operation, would have to take care of three large chambers totalling 17,490 cubic feet. Admittedly at the time of our inspection only one chamber of 5,832 cubic feet and an icemaking plant were in use. The ice output was stated to be 6 tons in twenty-four hours. Here, again, wooden walls were in evidence. For details, see Appendix N. Co-operative Fisheries (N.Z.), Ltd., Thames— This plant, the smallest in Thames, is the only one which can be rated first class. It has two well-kept cool-rooms, concrete throughout, with adequate insulation. The refrigeration unit, al2 ton Sterne, is adequate, and a similar unit is to be installed as a standby and to provide refrigeration for any chambers which may be erected in future. For details, see Appendix N.

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