LAMB AND MUTTON PRICES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20488, 5 March 1932, Page 10

LAMB AND MUTTON PRICES.

INTER-ISLAND COMPARISON. , We, have been told time and. again that the North Island lias wrested from Canterbury its claim for best lamb, and mutton quality, and that the term "Prime Canterbury" is, in effect, a tradition. It has been pointed out, not as "often, but frequently, on this page that this North Island superiority in lamb quality is confined to u brief period, when the first' of season "Christinas" milk lamb shipments arrive, and before Canterbury lamb is available. When it comes to the great bulk of lamb exported the rapetattened" product of Canterbury secures a premium over the grass-fattened lamb of the North Island—that is of - the proportion •of North Island lamb that is fattened. The lamb killings for the two Islands show that a big proportion of the northern lambs .are carried over to the following season, some of them going away as two-tooths early in the year, (ind securing the premium paid for 481b carcases.

A study of the grapli on last Saturday's page shows that "new season's" North Island lamb was bringing a higher price at Srnithfield than old season's Canterbury from January 9th to February 13th. Then the new season's Canterbury lamb arrived, and it displaced North Island, and remained in the ascendancy until the end of the season. , 1 To-day's mutton graph shows that the first of North Island mutton consignments on February r >th displaced Can terbury old season mutton, but "was displaced by Canterbury mutton on February 20th—in a fortnight. From then 011 to the end of the year Canterbury mutton remained in the ascendancy. The fallacy of the superiority of North Island lamb and mutton could in no better way be demonstrated than by the graph.