M+GOLD,+AGRICULTURE,+PASTORALISM+and+TIMBER

These are the BIG FOUR the New Zealand economy.
 * PODCAST**
 * [|GOLD AND WHORES]**
 * THE SETS OF VISUALS WILL HELP US GET A FEEL FOR THE INDUSTRIES**

The key differences are in the sustainabliity (or not) of the economic activity. There are two types of gold-mining - alluvial and quartz. Both require different technologies to extract the gold. A clue to help you remember is the **v** of alluvial relates to ri**v**ers and the **r** of quartz relates to rocks but then you probably don't need such silly clues. I need them because my memory fails me.
 * GOLD**

So the key ideas to remember and understand are:[|Google] Good basic notes
 * TYPES OF GOLD**
 * LOCATIONS**
 * TECHNOLOGY** including the way it evolved as well as extraction techniques
 * WEALTH**
 * PEOPLE** - demography
 * DOWNSTREAM EFFECTS** - you will have to think about this one a bit
 * RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION**
 * SUSTAINABILITY**

This is a book written by Mr Gardner in Word




 * [|slideshare from Wellington High School on economic developments]**
 * [|All Four industries]**

If we look at **GOLD** first, it is an extractive industry. Once the gold has gone, that was it until more gold was found. That was the experience in New Zealand. So once the gold went from Otago, so too did the people involved. The miners went to the West Coast and to Coromandel after Otago, but in a global sense it is interesting to note that New Zealand was part of the mobile gold-mining circuit because gold rushes occurred in California, Canada, South Africa and Australia.


 * TIMBER**
 * Is Kauri timber felling extractive or renewable?**
 * [|Matakohe kauri Museum]**

The Bush Frontier - Timber
The early exploiters of resources like timber have been described by Belich as "Tasmen" a way of explaining the importance of Australia in our early industrial development. Like other forms of exploitation it was based mainly on the coastline with a high level of interaction with local Maori.. Hokianga provided a safe Harbour with an abundance of readily available timber and cooperative Maori (Ngapuhi). It should be remembered that the captain of the Boyd was lured into a trap by the promise of timber...

In terms of significance - by 1840 a third of the 2000 Europeans in New Zealand were actively involved in the timber trade.

Later the cutting of timber became an important part of opening up the interior as more Maori land became available. It was both an important part of the local economy - most of the early settlements were constructed form Kauri, and also an important export commodity.

Early timber trade centers in the north. Its based mainly around the north and especially the Hokianga. Many ships called in around New Zealand to pick up timber in ad hoc arrangements but a real 'trade' developed in the Far North. It was aimed at extracting wood for ships spars and later developed into cut wood for the Sydney building trade. Kauri was the main timber felled later as building trade in Australia and Auckland - the shift to Auckland resulted in an explosion in building for the new Capital. The Bush frontier would last well into the next century.The trade created a new type of New Zealander, the Bushman. Living on the edge of the bush (and sometimes well inside it) they were almost devoid of female company resulting in the idea of 'mateship' which was also developing in Australia.

Groups of men living for long periods in close proximity and in occupations which were extremely dangerous meant that real and long lasting friendships were created.Good manners and behaviour was expected and any who failed to follow the (often unwritten) rules would not last long in the camp.

The worst that could be said of a man was that he did not pull his weight on the job or that he was a thief or a cheat (gambling and alcohol was strictly banned in most camps). Any of these failings could mean that no-one would employ a man and he would have to leave the district and hope his reputation did not follow him to his new job.Miles Fairburn has used some examples to justify his idea of transience and lack of community. Subsequent research has seriously challenged this with many examples of 'mates' or familial groups working together for many years - sometimes for decades.

The sense of community extended to welfare, injured workers were ferried out by mates who would carry thier friend out on their shoulders or backs. If a death occurred leaving a family, the ir effects (clothes, tools etc) would be auctioned with their mates often paying well over the odds for the second-hand gear. Timber saw the development of new technology, Pit Saws gave way to Steam and Bullocks were sometimes replaced by Bush trams (converted Traction Engines!!!)

The Timberjack was invented to assist the movemnet of the giant logs, as was the the Kauri Dam to move logs through hilly terrain, especially where the Corduroy Roads and Bullocks could not The Timber industry opened up new areas, assisting in the spread of farming and established many small towns in new area, especially the 70 Mile bush between Wellington and the Hawkes Bay, the Central North Island and in the Taranaki. The Sawmill that followed the workers attracted other small businesses. If the timber lasted long enough a small town could develop, sometimes it might be able to withstand the loss of the trade and continue to flourish as farming replaced the trees. ( Dannevirke or Featherston). If the timber ran out too quickly the town might not survive the loss. (Anyone remember Mauriceville?)
 * AGRICULTURE**
 * We have to eat don't we?**

Wool was one of the significant exports of the nineteenth century and it made a fortune for some colonists. Extensive sheep farming began in the 1 840s and was New Zealand’s principal export until the 1 860s; supplying the British textile industry. Some of the large runs or estates were about 5000 acres. Often the land was leased. This was a feature of pastoral farming in the Wairarapa, Hawkes Bay and in parts of the South Island, including Marlborough, Otago and Canterbury. Sheep scab was a contagious disease which affected the quality of the wool a sheep produced. Therefore, by the end of the nineteenth century, most sheep flocks were dipped in a solution of hot water, sulphur, tobacco and sometimes arsenic to counter scab. This sheep dip at John Grigg’s property, Longbeach, near Ashburton, was sophisticated for the time. On some properties streams and rivers were dammed and used for dipping. Processing beef carcases at the turn of the century. Refrigerated shipping meant new market opportunities for New Zealand. For meat producers, the demand was overwhelmingly for sheep meat. While some frozen beef was exported, the local market remained important to beef farmers as it did to other manufacturing and processing industries. By 1900, about 50% of New Zealand’s population lived in boroughs and cities; a sizeable market for local produce. In many towns, animals were killed at abattoirs and the meat was supplied to local butcher’s shops.
 * PASTORALISM The following are the descriptors for the images;**

Sheep wool was one of New Zealand’s leading nineteenth century exports. it relied on the skill of shearers. Although shearing machines became available in the last decades of the century, shearing was generally done with steel hand shears or ‘blades’ like those held by the Kenyan family in this photograph. Initially, shearing took place outdoors but as the flocks increased, New Zealanders began to innovate. Shearing sheds offered greater efficiency as they sheltered sheep for the next day’s shearing and allowed shearers to streamline their movements. Sheds became a substantial fixture on sheep stations. Shearing was skilled and arduous work 12 hour days and 6 day weeks were the norm. Shearers lived on the lob. Top blade shearers could shear about 100 sheep a day; depending on the condition of tne sheep and the shed, and they were paid for the number of sheep they shore. In addition to the shearers, shearing required a large number of associated workers: rouseabouts, fleecos, sheepos, cooks, the wool classer, pressers … By the end of the century, this vital industry had fostered a powerful trade union movement. Maori were heavily involved in the shearing industry and a reason for large tallies of sheep shorn. Maori shore throughout the country and were involved in the shearer’s union, the Amalgamated Shearers Union of Australasia: so much so that, in 1886, the Unions rules were printed in te reo, as were Union circulars for a time Going farming was the aspiration of many Immigrants to New Zealand, They brought with them a clear idea of how they thought their farms should look and for most their ideal was based on a style of British mixed farming. This farm in the Nelson area shows the sort of farm most settlers tried to make. There is a variety of livestock and the natural landscape has been greatly changed. Forest has been cleared, pasture planted, fences erected, roads made and buildings created. Mutton slaughter chain, the Belfast Freezing Works, Christchurch. Refrigerated shipping meant New Zealand meat and dairy products could be successfully transported for sale to Europe. By the end of the nineteenth century. mutton, cheese and butter had become New Zealand’s new export staples. Great Britain was still New Zealand’s major market. The pastoral industry changed markedly to capitalise on this technological development. A demand for fat stock and butter fat led to smaller scale, intensive pastoral farming. Much smaller farms, often family run units, were viable. Fencing, fertiliser, pasture development and more specialised animal breeding, gave some farmers the advantage. Refrigeration affected other groups in the economy as well. Employment was one area of change. Regular seasonal jobs in the freezing works were available. Storing and then loading refrigerated produce onto ships provided other avenues for employment. Gradually a class of urban-dwelling wage earners emerged and industrial unions began as well. Refrigeration also provided opportunities for investors. They could finance freezing works, transport companies, shipping and insurance. Mangaonoho, a bush settlement in the Rangitikei area. Colonists dramatically changed the New Zealand landscape in their pursuit of an economic basis. In most areas of New Zealand, removing the forest was a first step to establishing pasture. Both fire and felling were typically used to clear the land, with the felled timber providing the materials for both buildings and fences. This kind of scene, with the blackened skeleton of trees, was a typical North Island rural scene in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Over half of the total native forest in the country was cleared between 1840 and 1910, as settlers used axe and match to develop pastoral farms. Mustering Sheep. When sheep were farmed mainly for their wool, mustering was undertaken several times a year - for docking, and then for shearing and, in the South Island high country, again in the autumn to bring the sheep to lower pastures before the winter snows. On the large sheep runs there were few fences. The boundaries were set by natural features like rivers and mountains. On such runs, mustering was a seasonal occupation, involving teams of men, dogs, and horses for months. Because of the terrain, South Island musters were usually done on foot. In the North Island musterers relied on their team of six or so dogs. There were different types of dogs- huntaway and heading or eye dogs- to suit different mustering situations. A musterer’s reputation rested largely on the ability of his dogs. Ploughing was a fundamental process to agriculture and pastoralism in nineteenth century New Zealand. It was a skilled task, and both techniques and machinery were adapted to suit New Zealand conditions. Initially, bullock teams were often used to pull the plough because they were more powerful and easier to care for than horses. However, they were also slower. Once the land had been ‘broken in’, horse teams became the norm. On large estates, many teams of four or six draught horses would work at once. The development of smaller scale farming was more commonly associated with a scene like this photograph of a ploughman and his horses at Riwaka, near Nelson. Here a single-furrow wheeled plough is used. The two wheels help the ploughman determine the width and depth of the furrow. The plough handles were used to steer both the horses and the plough. Ploughing began with two furrows, classically a chain apart, one for ploughing down the paddock and the other for ploughing up. The aim was to plough a straight furrow that overlapped the previous furrow. A furrow always fell to the right, and when the team reached the end of a furrow, they swung to the left and ploughed across the paddock until they turned left again to plough up the other side of the rectangle. In this photograph, the narrow unploughed strip on which the man stands, shows that he has nearly finished his task of about an acre a day. The start of a 30 000 acre bush burn at Pukatora Station on the East Coast. Pastoralists frequently used fire to extend their farms. Commonly the larger trees were felled during the winter. In heavy bush, two people might cut about 10 hectares in a winter. Contract cutting was often undertaken by would-be farmers seeking a cash flow until their land was productive and also by Maori. The trees were left to dry until summer. Then, when the wind was judged favourable, away from buildings and toward the land to be cleared, fires were set. A successful burn still left some trees standing, as well as large stumps. It was a laborious task to remove these, often taking some years. Grass seed was hand sown onto the potash-rich land and then it was fenced into paddocks. The process of bush to established pasture took about a decade; though in some areas farmers abandoned the struggle. Sometimes, colonists were unlucky or careless and bush burns got out of control. This happened in parts of Taranaki, the Hawkes Bay and Canterbury in the mid 1 880s. Getting produce to market presented a challenge in nineteenth century New Zealand. In part, this was because New Zealand’s main market, Great Britain, was a several months sea voyage away. It was also because only a primitive transport system existed within New Zealand for much of the nineteenth century. In this case, at Waipiro Bay on the east coast, there was no ready access to either rail or a wharf. Therefore, farmers had their wool clip loaded in batches from horse drawn drays onto small boats. These were rowed to the steamer waiting offshore in deeper water and each bale was lifted up onto the deck. The wool bales themselves were made to accommodate this transport situation. Wool was baled in the shearing shed and, in this case, special small bales, known as ‘pockets’, had been made because their lighter weight made them easier to handle.

THE ESSAY BELOW COMPARES PASTORALISM WITH GOLD Two contrasting industries in New Zealand in the nineteenth century were gold and pastoralism. Gold as an extractive industry developed quickly in the 1860s and attracted a concentrated demographic of young males to the goldfields in Otago, Westland and the Coromandel. While increasing mechanisation improved extraction techniques - for both alluvial and quartz gold, ultimately the gold supply diminished. By contrast pastoralism developed in stages that enabled it, is as an industry, to become the mainstay of the New Zealand economy in a sustainable way. To wool was added meat as technology enabled lamb and mutton to be exported from New Zealand. The social political and economic consequences of gold provided further contrast to pastoralism. Gold produced an abberant, skewed, socially dislocated population dominated by young males. Gold did contribute significantly to the economy for a time. Pastoralism was to have a huge impact on the future of New Zealand because after the initial coterie of large run holders had established the industry, large pressure was placed on governments to gain access to the key commodity – land, so that they too could reap the dividends. Any government was always wise to take account of the pastoralists views.
 * The golden fleece followed by lambs to the slaughter**

Gold was first (officially) discovered in NZ in a high enough concentration to be extracted economically in 1852 near Coromandel. In the following years discoveries were made in Golden Bay (1856), Otago (1861), Marlborough (1864) and the West Coast (1864). These finds sparked immediate interest and within days of the discovery young men would begin pouring into the area, small towns would swell and completely new towns would spring up overnight. The eager young men got to work straight away with just a shovel and a pan and due to the richness of some of the finds this was sufficient for a time, however quickly as the gold was extracted new methods were developed to obtain the harder to reach gold. Sluice boxes and damming were the next technology and following these were the hydraulic hoses able to loosen some of the gold rich embankments to be sluiced. Finally dredges were brought into the country and further developed. With each new technology more capital was required so to get enough capital and the work force required to operate hydraulic hoses and dredges small mining gangs were established. By the time of dredging and sluicing miners began to look for the source of the alluvial gold, thus quartz mining began. Miners were in search of the ‘motherload’ this didn’t exist but this mining was economical and still continues to this day in Waihi.

Pastoralism as an industry started slowly, early on most settlers and whale stations had there own animals for personal consumption but not until the arrival of 1600 sheep in 1843 did pastoralism really begin. Cousins Clifford and Weld began farming in the Wairarapa and although it was suitable land soon shifted south onto the vast native grasslands of the eastern south island. In the 1850s drought in Australia saw an influx of Australian shepherds and there flocks and quickly most of the south islands vast grasslands were bought up. Due to the increase in the number of farms and the amount of wool being produced infra structure was required and so roads and railways were established to transport the wool. The large size of the farms meant that extensive farming was practised this meant that little capital was required it also meant that there were not a lot of flow down effects as employment came from shearing and boundary riding. Not until 1882 when the first refrigerated shipment did meat as part of pastoralism take off. This development meant an increase in profits and flow on effects such as refrigeration workers, butchers, etc. Refrigeration also caused a shift toward intensive farming which meant jobs were made for fencing and also the establishment of milking sheds and such like.

The impacts of Gold on NZ are quite clear due to the abrupt nature in which the industry came about. Socially massive influxes of young men keen for fame fortune and adventure was always going to cause problems. Such high concentrations of men, very few women, and the quick establishments of pubs and brothels in the mining towns meant that the mining communities were very rough places to be. During the gold rushes workers from all over the world came to NZ mainly from America and Europe but more interestingly from China. The Chinese were hard workers who banded together and would often revisit already mined areas and work them again, they were quite successful and this caused jealousy and racism. Economically the rewards for the miners were mixed while a lucky few were able to make a fortune most were barely able to dig up a living while some died of starvation and exposure to the elements, the real economic winners were those who could provide services such as mining equipment, booze and women. Politically the rights to the claims had to be sough through the government however mining didn’t have a great influence in NZ politics except for the area of foreign policy which saw the introduction to the poll tax. The poll tax was established due to the influx of Chinese workers and meant that to vote they had to pay 100 pounds. This limited the Chinese as citizens and meant that they were under represented in parliament.

The economic impacts of pastoralism grew steadily as did the industry as a whole to become NZ’s main industry and still is a massive part of our economy. Socially farmers were hard workers and law abiders and often had families to support making them ideal citizens of a growing nation. Politically the government controlled the land which was the most valuable resource to the farmers and thus they opened the sales up and made a lot of money from it while also increasing the industry. Farmers became very active in politics and were listened to by politicians as they were such a massive part of NZ in terms of numbers and economical influence.

Gold and Pastoralism were two contrasting industries which both had large impacts on NZ as a growing nation in almost all aspects of society.

**__The Pastoral Industry.__**

Over the nineteenth century, pastoralism provided the basis for New Zealand’s leading export commodities – first **wool** and later **frozen meat and dairy products.** Development in this industry fell into three distinct phases…


 * __Stage One: Pastoralism for Local Trade.__ **
 * __Pastoralism for the domestic market.__ **

Initially pastoralism, like all agriculture, was conducted for the domestic market. New Zealand’s distance from overseas markets, coupled with the perishable nature of many agricultural products and the lack of a technology to preserve such products, ensured that agriculture could not move beyond meeting the immediate needs of the domestic market. Moreover, New Zealand’s largely non-existent internal transport network made it impossible for a producer to serve a market wider than their immediate vicinity. Accordingly, many Pakeha settlers and Maori farmed only enough sheep and cattle to meet local demand for meat and milk. For example, the missionaries at Waimate and coastal whalers like Johnny Jones, who had a chain of South Island whaling stations, reared sheep and cattle for their own consumption and local trade. Sometimes this trade was with visiting shipping. Rawiri Taiwhanga of Nga Puhi raised dairy cattle near Kaikohe in the 1830s and produced butter for sale to ships at the Bay of Islands’ anchorages. During the same period a Scot, John Bell, farmed on Mana Island just off the Wellington coast and did a busy trade in both vegetables and meat with passing ships.


 * __Stage Two: Pastoralism for Wool.__ **
 * __Pakeha immigrants search for an economic base.__ **

By the 1840s, Pakeha migration, particularly by the Wakefield and associated schemes, imported large numbers of many British settlers. They arrived complete with an adherence to the __British pastoral model__ and the expectation of opportunities in an economy based on crop raising and animal husbandry. The natural east coast grasslands of both islands caught the attention of some of these settlers. They tried to establish sheep, mainly imported from Australia (merino) or purchased from local flocks, on parts of coastal Wairarapa, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago. Bidwell in the Wairarapa, Weld and Clifford in Marlborough and north Canterbury and the Deans family in Riccarton, Canterbury are early examples of pioneer pastoralists operating on large ‘runs’. Weld and Clifford, for example, ran 24,000 hectares of land leased cheaply from either Maori or the Crown. The experiences of the South Island runholders, in particular, encouraged others to take up leases for pastoral purposes on the tussock-covered plains.

**__The contribution of Australian Pastoralism.__**

Australian influences accelerated the trend towards pastoralism during the 1850s when drought devastated Australia’s pastoral lands. Not only were some Australian merino sheep and capital moved to New Zealand but, more importantly, Australian pastoralists, with their skills in sheep-rearing on an extensive scale, came too. The other part of this Australian legacy was the gap Australia’s failing industry left in the international wool market. New Zealand was well placed to exploit this gap and the 1860s saw a huge increase in both sheep numbers and wool exports.


 * Year || Sheep in millions ||
 * 1861 || 2 ||
 * 1871 || 10 ||
 * 1881 || 12 ||
 * 1891 || 18 ||
 * 1901 || 20 ||

**__The South Island Focus.__**

This stage of the pastoral industry had a heavy South Island focus. Its development was most rapid in Canterbury. Otago and Southland were also important areas. Vast pastoral ‘empires’ were created, often out of borrowed capital, on natural tussock land. Competition for available land later led Canterbury runholders towards the alpine high country. By the early 1860s even this inaccessible land of river flats and alpine meadows was locked up in vast leasehold estates.

**__Extensive Pastoralism.__**

As an economic system, this stage of pastoralism is described as **extensive.** This meant there was little input of capital (by way of labour, fences, pasture improvement and the like) per acre and few animals were supported per acre. For example, leases over 20,000 hectares were common in Canterbury, with boundaries set by natural features like rivers and mountains rather than fences. T he pasture itself was the indigenous tussock, modified only by the Scottish practice of the ‘burn’ to produce a more palatable growth in the new shoots and to remove plants like the ‘Spaniard’ and matagouri thorn which threatened either the life or wool of the sheep. This sort of environment and stage of pastoralism suited the foraging Merino breed of sheep (originally from Spain/North Africa, but most recently from Australia, a fine-woolled fleece).

**__Wool and its By-Products.__**

There was little attempt to add value to the raw product. Indeed, for much of the wool-boom period, wool was simply baled and shipped to Britain. At best it was scoured (washed). Secondary employment during the early stages of the wool boom was therefore restricted to wool scours, jobs in the transport sector and in the numerous tallow works. Essentially, meat product was a by-product of the wool industry. Except for the relatively brief gold boom period of the 1860s, the small local meat market could not consume the by-product of wool production. Carcasses were rendered down for tallow and some meat was canned – both for local consumption and export. During the 1870s, the Central Government tried to foster the growth of woollen mills to meet the local demand for cloth. Examples of these include the Mosgiel and Roslyn Woollen Mills (around Dunedin).

**__Pastoral Employment.__**

Extensive pastoralism offered relatively few opportunities for full time employment. Those full-time jobs that were available, like boundary riding and shepherding, were for men. They worked in lonely, isolated conditions with living quarters and food that, even by nineteenth century standards, were usually dreadful. (Living in tents, under rock overhangs, eating mutton and damper, weather permitting). Seasonal work, however, was much more common. There were jobs in mustering and dipping sheep and, once wire fencing was introduced, constructing and repairing fences. Shearers, of course, were a particularly important seasonal work force. Mechanised shearing was not introduced until the late 1880s. So, for most of the nineteenth century, the industry relied on the skill of blade shearers. Shearers most commonly worked by contract and, because of the industry’s dependence on their skill, could successfully insist on certain conditions and relatively good pay – particularly when wool prices were high. They were one of New Zealand’s earliest organised and unionised work forces and many were also part of a Trans-Tasman work force – shearing in both New Zealand and Australia. At shearing time other seasonal workers were required. Semi-skilled workers in the shearing shed would include cooks, rouseabouts, fleecos, wool classers, sorters and pressers. Some of the jobs could be done by women and in the North Island Maori family groups worked on contract in the latter part of the century in these seasonal semi-skilled positions.

**__The Social Impact of Extensive Pastoralism.__**

Socially, this phase of pastoralism is associated with the emergence of a distinctive social group or class – the runholders of Canterbury. Historian, Steven Eldred-Grigg, called them ‘The Southern Gentry’. They were people who initiated large-scale runholding, usually with little capital, during the wool boom period. So, they were fortunate to make considerable profits. Some of this money was spent in the pursuit of conspicuous consumption. This included lavish, baronial homesteads and houses in town, trips overseas and magnificent gardens. In part, these profits allowed the ‘gentry’ to diversify their economic investments into other sectors of the economy, such as shipping and insurance industries, woollen mills and later freezing works. Considerable money and effort was also put into the development of more effective wool production techniques. Wire fencing offered real advantages, particularly in terms of improved stock control. It facilitated breeding programmes and feed and disease management. As a result, the South Island’s pastoral lands were extensively fenced. English pasture grasses were introduced and the practice of burning waned.


 * __Stage Three: Pastoralism for Meat and Milk.__ **


 * __New Technology: Refrigeration.__ **

In 1882 frozen lamb was successfully shipped aboard the //SS Dunedin// from Port Chalmers to London. The technology of refrigeration promised a new direction for New Zealand’s export industries.


 * __New Products: Meat and Milk.__ **

With refrigeration many pastoralists could see a way of meeting some of Great Britain’s demand for animal protein. This required a change in the focus of their enterprise. Growing animals for consumption required more **intensive** pastoral practices and different animal breeds. This was particularly so for sheep farming when the emphasis changed from lean, foraging, fine wool producing Merino to faster growing, fatter breeds like the Southdown. The Dairy industry also had to undergo a major transformation in scale in order to increase the production of milk that would be processed into cheese and butter for sale in Britain.

**__New Farming Practices.__**

The shift to **intensive** pastoral production and the processing of its raw materials provided a catalyst for some major changes in the New Zealand economy. Small-scale farming, much of it based on the labour of the family unit, now presented itself as a viable option and became, by the end of the century, a major economic activity. As the climate of parts of the North Island was conducive to dairy farming and land was available to Pakeha due to their successful dispossession of Maori; dairying offered North Island bush farmers the opportunity to rise above a cottage-level industry. This meant that South Auckland, the Wairarapa and Taranaki all acquired dairy factories by the mid-1880s. Usually, these were owned cooperatively by the farmers who supplied them.

**__New Economic Opportunities: Investment and Employment.__**

Refrigeration presented new opportunities to capitalists to invest in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy. Capitalists, many of whom had been enriched by the wool stage of pastoralism, diversified their investments into meat processing and shipping industries in particular. The slaughter and processing of meat took place in freezing works. By the 1890s these included works like Belfast in Christchurch, Longbeach in Ashburton and Waitara in Taranaki. Refrigeration also led to new employment opportunities in industry. Jobs became available in dairy factories, freezing works and the transport and shipping industries. This contributed to the formation of a town-based working ‘class’. Refrigeration gave New Zealand the means to capitalise on its environmental advantages – particularly a climate suited to the production of pasture. Moreover, Vogel’s legacy of a transport network in the 1870s allowed New Zealand to make the most of this new opportunity once the scale of production had increased sufficiently. It is important not to over-estimate the immediacy of New Zealand’s response to this new economic opportunity though, as it took until the twentieth century for the value of refrigerated exports to exceed that of wool. The constant factor in this transition from pastoralism for wool to pastoralism for meat and milk was that Great Britain remained New Zealand’s principal market.