THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1645, 25 August 1887, Page 3

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

We need offer no apology for reverting m such an early issue to the frozen meat trade. Its importance to the colony demands that strenuous efforts should be at once made, if not to resuscitate it, at any rate to place it on a more satisfactory basis. In our last we published the remarks of the " European Mail" on this subject. Our Home contemporary observes :— " It goes without asking that New Zealand long ago beat the United States and Canada m supplying this country with fresh frozen mutton. Both m quality and quantity, an^ also m regularity of supply, the Britain of the South bore away the palm. It appear?, however, •' from information received," as the detectives say, that New Zealand sheepfarmers must be up and stirring or La Plata — t.a. t the Argentine Republic — will secure the lion's share of the important trade." The " Mail" goes on to state that m May 33,506cwt. ofj frozen mutton, valued at was ! received and imported into London from Australasia, while during the same month the Argentine Republic sent 33,864cwt., valued at only £63,206. In other words, while New Zealand mutton was worth £2 15s per cwt, the Argentine mutton was placed at £* 17s.

Now it strikes us that investigation would show that this being all bought up by the butchers at something like threepence half-peinny and fourpence per pound, the New Zealand portion is sold as " prime Home grown " Southdown, while the inferior Argentine stuff is disposed of as '• prime New Zealand." The New Zealand sheepfarmer is thus doubly injured by La Plata's competition. The price is reduced m the first place, and m the second the New Zealand article is depreciated, and a prejudice against it created, by the inferior product of the arid Argentine being palmed off as " Prime New Zeaand/

To remedy this state of things several plans have been suggested. The first we have alluded to already, when the cable informed us that Mr F; C. Brown had arranged for the formation of an English company wilh a capital of to supply our mutton to consumers direct, without the intervention of middlemen. Another suggestion is that the New Zealand mutton breeder for the London market should have his own shops there, consign his mutton to them and them alone, and absolutely decline to sell otherwise than retail. Another suggestion is that the frozen meat should be sent to other ports, such as Liverpool, Hull and Bristol, if the exporters wish

it to be thoroughly introduced to the British public. The reason for this is that the cost ot carrying the meat from London to these ports is just about as much as the freight from the colony to London. There are objections to, and difficulties surrounding, each of these, still it is very evident that something must be done, and done soon, to remedy the present state of affairs. If no step be taken, if the trade be suffered to drift along as it has hitherto done without a guiding hand, if the inferior produce of La Plata is to be allowed to be sold as genuine New Zealand and the latter as home-grown Southdown, the trade must inevitably collapse, and collapse too with such a bad reputation that no subsequent efforts wiil be able to efface, m addition to having destroyed one of the most promising sources of wealth that the colony has ever been endowed with.