THE IItOZEN MEAT TKADE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1605, 9 July 1887, Page 4

THE lItOZEN MEAT TKADE.

" Anglo Australian " In (ho " Europ9tn Mail " writes :— "lt ia strange to me atf loaet to hear on nil aides that the trado m frczm mutton from .New Zealand la dull, and that 'there ia no prospect of *ny improvement ' How is this 1 lam well convinced that an enormous quantity of New Zealand meat goes Into general middle class oouaumption and Is palmed off on the purchasers as English mutton, of which it ia usually a first-rate specimen, and this adds, if anything, to the evil, Frut-rnte Now Zealand sheep can be bought here for 2a lOi the stone, and white the arrivals of New Zealand sheep have of late been more heavy, those from La Plata have rather diminished. Whit, I wonder, can be done to correct tho present anomalous state of things? There cm be no doubt whatever that the desideratum ia to get the trade out of m ;-y of the hands ioto which it has oo unfur.unately fallen. If all the Australasian fresh meat sent over here could but go into general public consumption as such, the trade would m a very short time become something truly gigantic Of course, I assume that the low current rates originally offered to the consumer will bo maict lined. How U this to be done. Well, one way that naturally occurs to me ts simply this, Let a syndicate bo formed, with the requisite machinery on this side, to import the meat into the United KiDgdom, to open shops of the common kind, just llko the other butchers, for the extensive sale of the colonial meat at prices which must draw the ordinary householder to give the meat a trial. This might ba done effectual, and yet at fiiat it would only be needful to open a few shops iv certain populous neighborhoods, and, as the business extended, add shop to shop m adjacent localities.' Of course theso chops wou'd rece've the imported meat direot, and would take care that tho other butchers did not buy up colonial meat cheap and ■ell it as English, which some of them would certainly try to do. I throw thia out a« a very crude suggestion, but really think it is worthy of working out m detail."