Am Interesting Letter.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 26, 31 December 1884, Page 2

Am Interesting Letter.

From a private letter received by a resident m the district we (Hawera Star) have been permitted to make the following extracts, which are very interesting, an showing the state of trade t in England aud the vimv taken of New Zealand frozen meat m industrial centrea. Ihe letter is written from Jarrow-on-Tyne, and is dated October 30 1884 •— " Everything on Tyne side i 8 m a most terrible state ; the whpla of tho river side towns are m a state of starvation ; one-penny dinners for children at schooljare all the go. They started first at Gateshead, then Newcastle, and now they are all tho go at Jarrow, Where they give id breakfasts and Id dinners Here they give them cocoa for breakfast. I have not seen any of them, but they tell me that the children like them well, and that the dinners are really good. Those that cannot raise tho penny get them free. You are sending some grand mutton over here. It is well ' taken with and butchers' meat is coming down fully 2dperlb m price. The New Zealand Mutton Company are opening shops m nil the larger towns. In^Nowcastle they have a very large shop. / They sell hundreds on a Saturday, and one cannot get along the footpath for the crowd standing around. They sell logs at 8d por lb ; necks and shoulders, G£d ; loins, 7d ; and breasts, 4£d and sd. They arV oponing put shops at Gateshead, Blaydon, Jarrow, Shields, and other places. The colliery people on Saturdays are all loaded with it, and everyone is ready to buy it because it is choap. If work was good and money m plenty a great many would nevor look at it; so thac it is a good thing for all, as it has reduced the price of beef and mutton. There is plenty of good boiling beef at 8d and 9d. But then what is going to be done wi:h the farmers ? It is now doing a great deal of harm to those who bought cattle last spring and put them ;,oa to graw, and some have had to sell them for nearly the samo mouey as purchased for, cwing to the dry season aud scarcity of grass ; and then the price of beef has fallen so much that some have lost all their summer's grass for nothing:, Thoraisonly ona lemedy— that is, the price of land must come further. down^3?bere are now any amonnt of farms to let, but nothing to what there "will be after the rent days are over m November. Wheat is selling at nothing-— plenty <of wheat at 6s 6d per nine stone. Flour is from Is 5d ; and good potatoes—the best there has been for a long time— at 3s a poke of 10 stone. There is no likelihood. of the ship yards getting busy for some 'time. There are still a lotiof*BbJps lying idle m the river for wantdf employment. Trade is m a terrible state. The guardians, started a lot , of .man : op Tuesday to break stones at Jarrowifor Is per day, and there are above lqd men set to work, and lots of men <jould not get a start." j