COLONIAL FRESH MEAT.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 506, 7 April 1880, Page 3

COLONIAL FRESH MEAT.

A London merchant, writing' on the colonial export of frozen meat, says: In the Australasian colonies there is a stock of Cl millions of sheep and millions of cattle. The fact that this enormous reserve, may be made available in London in a presentable condition at a cost of 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 population. I have had the advantage of dining off a splendid joint of Australian beef brought by the steamship Strathleren, and purchased by a friend at the iSmithfiold Meat Market. It was a joint 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 first animals, so that in eating Australian beef we know that the quality is equal to home-bred, 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.

Worms in the Water Pipe. —The water pipes of Wellington are beginning to deliver small fish and other aquatic dainties free of extra charge. The Post says : “ A curiosity of animal life was brought to our office by an old settler, who had it delivered to him free of extra charge through his water pipe by the City Corporation. The little stranger’s appearance caused a shudder to run through us, as we thought of our strict temperance principles. The animal is about tlirise-quarters of an inch long, semi-transparent, with a tail about an inch and a quarter in length, and there is a stealthy ferocity and malignity of purpose about its movements calculated to curdle the blood of the stoutest Good Templar. People who want • to-drink the water, and do not buy it simply for the purpose of examining the ichthyological and entomological phenomena which it presents, will do well to use a filter.”