Frozen Meat Trade

Feilding Star, Issue 71, 27 May 1884, Page 3

Frozen Meat Trade

(Post London Coi-f'spoiule t). During the past ten da\s frozen mutton has been fetching ;ireis«'lv' the same price a English, viz., Q\ ' to 7d per lb. his is owing to th--factthat Messrs Ward iiu-i S.impson ■ bought, up tin- final lot of the '.orantri's consignment. '»nl it b'-ing the ouiv frozen mutton in the. m>irk"r, they were able to make " a ring." and command .first class rates. The last ■00 <-arca>es >.re to he ;-o'd txlav. uud there will th--n be no coioniai meat of unv kind available till the arrival of the Doric. One of the New Zealand loan aud Mercantile (oiD|i-U)'s clerks, talkinj*- to me about this state of things yesterday morning, ob-erved that it would he often possible to create " a ring" and raise the price of ii utton, if shipper* .in the colony confined their consignments to one or two houses, instad pf. spreading them over a «b-zen or so. When there were no icod vaults it was of course necessary to put fioz-n inuttou «-n the market uirec'ly it arrived, but now large consi_ue.es, ii their hands are not forced by other li"uses in the trade, can wait tor the most atl van' ageous momiTt.. -I have no hesitation in saying if all New Zealand frozen mutton were shipped to one responsible company thoroughly conversant witn the trade, tho prices reaised by shippers Aould be vastly ■ higher. Anybody can see that in such a case the market would be at their cqihmand New Zealand mutton is now a recognised provision which retail butchers find they must keep no matter what the price may be.