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King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 397, 20 September 1911, Page 3

BACK TO AMURI.

MR A. W. RUTHERFORD RETURNS FROM TRAVEL.

After an absence from New Zealand of over eighteen months, spent mostly in Great Britain and on the Continent, Mr A. W. Rutherford, accompanied by his wife and thrye daughters, returned to the Dominion on the 13th inst., and left for his home at Mendip Hills. Although Mr Rutherford is approaching three score years and ten, it was his first trip to the Old Country, as he is coionial-born, and had not crossed the line before. He and his party have returned in first-class health, and Mr Rutherford assured a Lytteiton Times' representative that they had had a most enjoyable trip.

Mr Rutherford visited most of the Continental towns worth visiting, but spent his Christmas in Old Engaind, where he had his first midwinter Christmas dinner. He travelled through Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany. He admired the people of Vienna, but placed Berlin first in his ideal of a city. He was struck very much by the kaleidoscopic scenes in the Continental cities, where people of all nations teem, but these changing scenes were overshadowed by the extreme poverty. Continental cities, he remarked, were incomplete without their gaming tables. The rich people who visited them did not go abroad to be good, and consequently every place had its minature Monte Carlo. Mr Rutherford was most fortunate in his introductions. While at Home he met Earl Meath, who introduced him to Lord and Lady Aberdeen, with whom he dined in the vice-regal residence at Dublin. He was present in the Abbey at the Coronation, in St. Paul's at the Thanksgiving, and at the naval review at Spithead, where he was aboard one of the several P. and 0. boats chartered by the Admiralty and officered with naval officers, who acted as hosts. The naval review made the most profound impression on Mr Rutherford.

Mr Rutherford expressed a desire to avoid an interview on contentious matters. He said that he would not re-enter politics. Dealing with matters affecting the soil he said that he had attended the sales of fat stock at Smithfield, where he had greatly admired the cattle. They were mostly babv beef, he said, and, being killed much younger than in New Zealand, they were beefy and fat, being all stall fed without receiving exercise. He considered that it was better beef than colonial beef, although that was a contentious matter. If colonial beef were killed younger prbably it would be just as good. New Zealand frozen mutton, Mr Rutherford said, received very rough handling at London. It was landed head over heels from ship to wharf, down a chute, and thence to barges, and numbers of legs were broken and pieces chipped out of the carcases, consequently they had a cheap appearance. It was not so with American beef, which was landed at Liverpool and handled by men in the employ of the shippers. The remedy, he suggested, was that the consignors in New Zealand should refuse to ship unless they were assured of a better mode of landing. He thought that the meat could be landed in large canvas bags. It was difficult to effect reform in London; the old methods were "good enough," and anybody who had the temerity to suggest improvement would run a personal risk. The result was that New Zealand meat looked cheap, but American meat looked as attractive as the carcases to be seen in Chriatchurch shops. Mr Rutherford was asked why New Zealand mutton should be retailed in London cheaper than in New Zealand. He replied that in the Dominion a butcher could rarely refuse credit, and contracted bad debts. In London the trade was for cash, and the cost of distribution was much lower. In addition to that, a New Zealand farmer was glad to accept a cash offer for his meat for export, even though it might not be as good as could be got by waiting for it. Mr Rutherford was too practical to say that he had seen as good stock in New Zealand as he had seen in the Old Country. He said that at the Royal Highland Society's show at Dumfries and at the Royal Show at Norwich he had seen some very fine stock. They had been breeding for a few hundred years, and if they had not better stock New Zealand breeders would not go Home to buy. It amused and even annoyed him to hear returning colonials placing their own stock first, for if it were so. why did they go Home to buy?