LAMB AND MUTTON TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1143, 2 June 1911, Page 8

LAMB AND MUTTON TRADE.

' '-CANTERBURY OPINIONS. ; "(By Telegraph.—special Correspondent.) Christchurch, June 1. . For.some time past the Homo meat ! trade journals and (he circulars emanating'from the various firms.handling .a.iuL ' dealing in frozen meat have contained i critical remarks with reference, .to the 'j quality of the mutton sent dunng tho I last few years from New Zealand, . and one, big firm of meat salesmen in. then* > Iwesklv report "for the. New Zealand -mail,'dated April 14, stated that the ei"■r i forts to increase the sale of; New Zeaj ! laiitl mutton and fiofc back, some or the !trade that 1 had.been .taken by the Kiver jplate companies continued to .have a dc- ! pressing effect upon prices. Canterbury j mutton, which at one time had a. class ot f buyers peculiarly its own, had so entirehy: changed its character that very few ■ customers, would now pay tlie. price iuk- . ,cd : for that article." ... i Bohictant as tliey naturally would -be to confirm altogether such- a statement, several.gentlemen prominent in'the frozen :meat trade, when seen by a representative of the "Press" to-da,v, admitted that' ~ vthere was a substratum of truth hidden jußdor, these rather sweeping allegations. 'At,.one time the term "New Zealand" (when, applied to mutton was a name to J ,conjure with at Home. Other lessfavoured brands of imported meat were (relegated to second place," almost as a ' matter of course. . Verr gradually other ■ brands of meat from Australia and South .America crept into favour. New Zealand 'meat still held its own as far as price vrent;.but the strictures referred to above show that even opinion regarding prime "Canterbury" has altered, and although ' ;it still retains-its premium we read, that i "very few customers will now pay the " | eStra price asked for that article." The ' natural, deduction is that either Australian and . youth American mutton has greatly improved in-quality,'or that Canterbury mutton has deteriorated;, There, : seems some grounds for supposing that • the latter is the case. . .' A. point in favour of the Australian and River I'late trade is the regularity ,of - supplies from these quarters, while the New Zealand-supply has for some : years been...notoriously unsteady. The. effect . upon" even the staunchest supporters of the New ■ Zealand article at Home has beeji, naturally enough, to make them look out for .some,more, stable sourcefrom : which., to .draw their, stocks, and - their attention has been directed to the supplies ••■'{of.out competitors who.send forward,', no j doubt, a very fair article.. Latterly Can- • torbury has been particularly uncertain fin sending out mutton, and.the cause is > j not far to seek. Willi the cutting upand | the subdividing of the big estates much 'more attention has been paid to the pro- . • ductidn of fat lambs as against the older animal, with the natural, result of producing a much greater range of evenness and quality. The ■ decrease ,in tho numbers of the merino and, half-bred flocks has also, undoubtedly, had its effect, and ■ : appears likely to yet have more. ■The smaller sheep farmers go in almost exclusively for the coarse and ljiore early maturing breeds, their object being, of ' ' course,- to get fat lambs, and if, as 'is . often the case, these lambs "missfire" (so to. speak), and fail to fatten, they do notmake, nearly «o good mutton. Of course there are still breeders who make a spe- ■ ciality- of young mutton, as against' lamb, and it- may. be taken for granted that tliey "have no difficulty in disposing of / their produce. The huge increase'in the fat lamb trade of- Canterbury overshadows completely the comparatively small loss occasioned by the less ardent demand for its mutton, and there is little doubt that the province has gained and not lost by the exchange. .