New Zealanders of the Year for 1882 are Thomas Brydone and William Soltau Davidson, entrepreneurs who began the trade in frozen meat between New Zealand and Britain.
As James Belich points out in Paradise Reforged, they did not invent refrigeration but they "utilised its potential more effectively and comprehensively" than the pioneers of the technology in Australia.
A Herald editorial at the time praised the frozen meat trade and claimed New Zealand meat was better than Australian. "It is one other step in the march of progress, which is such a characteristic of the present age, and shows that all difficulties, however great they may apparently be, can be overcome by the necessary scientific knowledge and well directed energy."
The effect was to turn waste produce - before refrigeration New Zealand exported the wool and discarded the carcasses or melted them down for tallow - into a mainstay of the economy.
