The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1888. THE FROZEN MEAT EXPORT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1742, 17 January 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1888. THE FROZEN MEAT EXPORT.

We have frequently called attention to the fact that the present position of the New Zealand frozen meat trade is m the highest degree unsatisfactory. We have pointed out that the lion's share of the proceeds of shipments of New Zealand mutton goes, not to the producer, but to the middleman, and that if this state of things were reversed an enormous impetus would be given to production, and many hundreds of thousands of pounds woutd find their way to the pockets ol our flockmasters which are now bagged by people at Home. And when we know that the consumer of our mutton pays on an Average not less than sixpence a pound —probably mere— it is marvellous that our runholders and large sheepfarmers should remain inert and accept from jd to 4d per Ib, less expenses, amounting to something like 2j£d, when it appears to us quite possible for them to obtain at least s^d gross, leaving them a clear 3d per lb, which would mean from 15s to 17s 6d per carcase of 60 to 70 lbs and would pay handsomely. Mr C. G. Tripp, who takes a great interest m this matter, has recently been advocating the formation of a Colonial Company having its own freezing chambers and cooling houses m the large centres of population m Great Britain, from which meat could be forwarded to smaller places. He says:— "lt is solely our interest from this side of the world, to put our hands into our pockets and have it done here, and have, by this means, our own meat consigned to our own stores for redistribution. We do away with the middle-man to a great dxtent. But we must go even farther than having these chambers ; we must rent stores and shops m the various villages and towns, and as we do so, sell our own interest as fast as we can, binding the purchaser to buy our mutton, and sell nothing else but our mutton. The public ihen can depend upon getting whit we profess to sellreally good mutt6a, and not such stuff w if bow fold under the n«me of ftw

Zealaud mutton, thereby giving us unjustly a bad name. The whole matter rests with us here. You require one head man from the colonies, with a board of directors m London as well | as here, who will meet once a month j i and I feel sure it will pay far better than any gold mines, and grow m time to an enormous trade, and be a grand success." We entirely concur with Mr i Tripp, indeed we have urged the aelf-same thing over and over again, and we are delighted to find others working with the same object m view. And it is heartily to be hoped that ere long we shall be able to chronicle the formation of such a Company as is proposed. Meantime the success which awaits operations on a large scale is being abundantly demonstrated on a smaller m more than one instance. One of these is that referred to by Mr Tripp, who says — " I know of one case of a gentleman who went to England some months since and started a New Zealand meat shop m a provincial town m June last, and he is now selling seventy sheep a week and io cwt of beef, and clearing £6 a week after paying all expenccs. Surely this is encourage - ment enough to any company." There is plenty of room for others to follow this example, indeed we know of nc more promising opening for enterprise than is now afforded m this direction,