The Fairfild Freezing Works are owned by the Canterbury Frozen Meat and Dairy Produce Export Company, Limited, and are situated about four miles north of Ashburton, in the centre of one of the best sheep raising districts in New Zealand. The page 810 works are considered to be the finest in the Southern Hemisphere, and can put through 500 sheep in a day, and have storage capacity for 80,000 carcases. Although freezing carcases is the main business of the works, other industries are carried on in connection with the wool, hides, and tallow, the manufacture of by-products, such as premier jus, tallow, manure, and sausage casings. Each department has its own head and staff of workmen, and its own plant. In connection with the works, there is a reserve water supply of two and a half million gallons. A railway siding runs along the front of the buildings and between the main building and the fellmongery, past the platforms of the various departments; and the company's own engine is employed for haulage. The district abattoirs are at the works.