THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2186, 26 February 1881, Page 3

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

With the arrival of the Protos in London the Australian frozen meat trade may be said to have emerged from the experimental stage, and to have taken its place as an ordinary commercial enterprise, attended with no very special risks. Grave doubts were felt by many regarding the Protos' shipment, as it was known that a serious miscalculation had been made at the outset with regard to the capacity of the engine employed for freezing the meat before shipping it. An attempt was made to treat a larger number of carcases than the engine could manage with the consequence that the temperature in the chamber rose to a degree that threatened the safety of the meat. Some of this, wo believe, it was not thought prudent to send, and it was disposed of. Hearing these rumours, and realising the heavy discouragement arty notorious failuro at tho outset of the trade would entail, those most interested in its establishment have looked for the account of the Protos' arrival with certain anxious misgivings. The good news we publish this week not only dispels these fears, but muet assure the inoafc cautious stookowner that he runs a very ordinary risk in shipping his fat stock Home. For us m Queensland this news comes at a very fortunate time. Next month the first steamer of the new mail service starts for Brisbane. The company have shown by the arrangements they are making for the transhipment of goods for the Southern colonies that they mean to adhere loyally to the spirit of their agreement, and not send their vessels south of Moreton Bay. The first two steamers will probably have no difficulty in filling up with wool, but at the end of the wool season the only hope of homeward cargo is from the development of the meat trade. As yet the directors have naturally felt some indecision about fitting up their steamers for this special trade, and have requested the agents here to give them all information and advice possible on this head. They need now no longer hesitate. There will be no difficulty in supplying them with 2000 tons of frozen meat all through the winter months when the Rockhampton and Brisbane establishments have both got into working order. Indeed, it seoms likely that the meat trade must eventually drive much of the wool by other lines, if it is to be a continuous export, and not merely confined to the winter months. And that the trade, if it is to be a success, must be continuous is obvious. The London distributors must be able to depend upon a regular supply if they are to keep a connection together. Meat companies on this side, too, could not afford to have an idle season. Expensive machinery and a sf.ail of skilled workmen must be kept in motion, so that if the trade develops as rapidly as we have every reason to anticipate, oarcass moat will form the chief export freight for the new line of direct steamers.

The Protoa took 1791 carcases of sheep, 100 ouraiaseo lambs, and only six quarters of beef. There were also 4138 caaks and cases of batter. It soems probable that mutton will be in even greater request in England than beef. The small breeds of sheep are those most popular with consumers, and the little Wolsh and Highland mntton is esteemed a delicacy by people accustomed to the larger and coarser Southdowns, Ootswoldd, and Lincoins that forms the chief proportion of the English consumption. The meriao weighing from 451 b to 551 b is exaotly the carcass that meets the public taste, and we believe Australian mutton will rank in favor with the small mountain sheep of Great Britain. But thero are reasons quito apart from its intrinsic excellence that point to our mutton being in high demand in England. The "Field" of November last has the following remarks on tho homogrown supply of mutton. " It must be admitted that mutton is a prime necessity to the teeming population of these islands, &nd that, thanks to tho liver rot and to othec causes, thero has been an alarming falling off in the number of sheep reared in Great Britain and Ireland between 1875 and 1880. A Kentucky journal has lately called the attention of its agricultural and farming readers 'to tho enormous price at which shoep, lamb and mutton, have been selling in England during the present year.' Our Transatlantic contemporary has discovered that there is at present a very short supply of sheep among our farmers, and that they have no means of increasing it for some years to come.

At the sales of breeding sheep, and at the annual letting of rams, larger average prices have lately been secured in England than upon any previous oo casion j and our contemporary oomeß to the uncomfortable conclusion that we are threatened with a sheep famine. Tho imputable disease in the ovine liver has been fatal, it is said, to nearly 3,000,000 of British and Irish sheep within the last two years, the result being that good mutton is exceptionally dear, and promises to be dearer. ' Poverty's meat market' is sensibly affected, so we are told, by the scarcity of the cheap joints and bits of mutton in which the humbler classes take such delight; and it is added that the national food of Englishmen is not beef, &s is popularly imagined, but the flesh of the sheep. ' The manufacturing population of Great. Britain,' says tho same authority, ' eat very little beef, and there animal food is mainly mutton.' Under these circumstances, American farmers and Btock-raieers are urged to enlarge their flock of oheep, if they have them to enlarge, and if not, to betako themselves to the unsettled lands in tho west and south of the Union, upon which 'the golden-footed animals,' which enrich the ground upon which they feed, and also the pockets of their owners, may be profitably reared in untold numbers for many decades of years to come." The statements of this Kentucky journal are borne out by the returns furnished by Mr B. Giffen, and lately published in England. The total number of sheep in the British Isles at present is 26,000,000, instead of 30,000,000, which it amounted to in 1875. The "Field" says-"It is from the United States that our best hope in England of keeping down the price of mutton oan alone bo derived." Probably the attention of that generally well-informed journal will be directed to Australia by the arrival of the Protos with this second shipment of meat. As Australian growers will bo satisfied with an average of from 6d to 7d, we need not fear American competition.