FRESH MEAT FROM AUSTRALASIA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 67, 16 April 1880, Page 3

FRESH MEAT FROM AUSTRALASIA.

Mr Nathaniel Cork, of Lombard street, London, in writing to the Times on this subject, says : — The accomplishment of this achievement has been looked forward to for many years with the greatest interest by the Queen's subjects in all the southern colonies. From their superfluity they have hoped that some day they might supply the necessities of the old country. The late Mr Mort, of Sydney, it is said, spent from his private fortune £70,000 in works and experiments for preserving meat in a fresh condition by a freezing process. His great object has been attained by a simpler method than he adopted, and it is now iemonbtrated thai fresh meat may be brought from Australasia, in any quantity, at a very small cost. In the Australasian colonies there is a stock of 61 millions of sheep and 7£ millions of cattle. The fact that this enormous reserve may be made available in Lonion in a presentable condition, at o cost of about 2d per lb, with a further 2d for the expense of freezing and the cost of shipping, is one of the first importance. It affects not only the colonies, but also the masses of our own pr piu lation. I have had the advantage of dining off a splendid joint ot Australian beef brought by the steamship Strathleven, and purchased by a friend • at the Smithfield Meat Market on Saturday. It was a joiut of prime fat ox beef, such as one would see in a West-end butcher's shop, and when cooked it was remarkably tender I cannot doubt that as some thirty tons were delivered by the Strathleven, very many of your readers have also dined off Australian meat, and fancied they were enjoying well- hung South, Down mutton, or prime short-horn beef, for many years Australian cattle breeders have spared no expense in obtaining from this country the very finest animals, so that in eating Australian beef we know that the quality is equal to the best homebred, the only difference being that the colonial beast is fattened on grass, while the English is stall-fed. The freezing process does not in any way deteriorate the meat.