The Frozen Meat Trade.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 8 December 1891, Page 3

The Frozen Meat Trade.

_-#. An interesting discussion has been going on in the Napier Telegraph on the subject of frozen meat. Ifc began with the publication of the replies from Lord Onslow's friends and the editor's comments upon them. ' A* letter was written by Mr W. Nelson, to which the Telegraph replied, and then wound up by a further letter from Mr Nelson, from which we take the following extracts: — It is essential to the future of our trade that it should be clearly understood where the fault lies. . . . . You say " there are few New Zealanders who have returned from a visit to England who have not told queer stories of that same British butcher." . '. . . . Just boil down all the yarns which reach ns about the iniquity of the British butcher, and what does it amount to ? Why at the worst that out of many thousands of butchers there are a few scoundrels, but it has not been proved that even they have any power to materially injure the meat trade ; to some extent no doubt they do, but to a very small one compared with other features of the trade. Some years back, when freezing companies were nofc so numerous as now. the honors in the .. iniquity, race were about evenly divided between the freezing companies and the British butcher, but now that freezing companies are more numerous, they are out of ihe running altogether, and the British butcher has the field to himself, and prices are lower than ever. Again why should not the British butcher sell his mutton as he likes? I assume he buys it in the open market, and toys for it ; it is then his own property, and he can do as ____ he likes with it. If he sells it as prime Scotch he may be imperilling the permanent rest of his soul — rthat is his business — but I can't see how tho New Zealand producers' interests are adversely affected. The higher price at which meat is retailed the higher price can the retailer _*g,fford to give for ifc I I must now quote the last eight lines * of your article. "If somewhere about half the mutton sent Home is, as Mr Nelson says, either ' utter rubbish ' or unsuitable to the market how is it that the prices quoted do not show a corresponding dif- . fiMcnce ? Utter rubbish and unsnit- i

able meat appear to find buyers, anc to fetch prices within a fraction o chat obtained for what is termed best Canterbury." I wonder whj you wrote this ? —and should any oi your subscribers pay me the com pliment of reading this effusion, ] will ask them to pay special attention to this part. It strikes me you musfc have credited me with a verj wrong motive f->r my last letter, oi else yon must bave a very differenl standard for the value of fractions than I have. During the -past six months something like a million o: New Zealand sheep have been sole at prices (for sound sheep) ranging from 2-Jd to 4id, the range of prices on individual shipments being from 2-Jd to 4£d, or " a fractional difference "of lfd. Why, Sir, in tho very same issue in which youi article appears your table quotations are Canterbury 4£d, Wellington 3fd, thus showing a difference of fd befcween the two ports, presumably for wether mutton ; and as al present old ewe mutton is selling lc below wethers, I think you musi allow that the fraction is not sc trifling as your article would leac many of your readers to suppose. Mr F. Nelson (who was resident in Hawke's Bay for twenty years and now spends the greater part oi his time in fche interest of the frozen meat trade) writes me : — The market is simply overdone with old ewes and light and heavy weight sheep. River Plate, Sydney, and Queensland more than supply the requirements foi small mutton, and the very heavy New Zealand sheep are simply unsaleable except in very limitec numbers, but we can sell any number of sheep weighing from 551 b to 651 bat a good price. Our trade requirements are two-thirds of such weights to one third of other weights whereas the proportions are just reversed, and we only get one-third of what musfc always be first-class weights!. I recommend you to send Home no sheep over 701 bif you can possibly avoid it, and old ewes, il sent at all, must be very prime and in limited numbers. I also recommend you to pay more attention tc grading ; it is of utmost importance that any brand of mutton should be exactly what it purports to be ; light and heavy weights should not be together ; maiden ewes separate from wethers ; and no old ewes among the maidens." .... I am so impressed with the necessity of carrying out the trade on these lines that I have decided in future not to ship a single sheep over 751 b, and no old ewes over 651 b, and these only of the primest quality. I am also grading our sheep into ten classes, and this standard will be adhered to at every port in New Zealand from which we ship sheep, and I earnestly hope every other company will do the same. New Zealand will then recover the position it once held in the trade, a position which may easily be retained through all time if only the sheep - farmer will render his assistance to the freezing companies by growing the class of animal which is required, viz., a 551 bto 651 b sheep of fair quality and good condition.