RIVAL TO AUSTRALIAN MEAT.

Patea Mail, 7 June 1881, Page 4

RIVAL TO AUSTRALIAN MEAT.

Some short time ago, says the European Mail , we had occasion to allude to the successful importation of Australian fresh meat, and asked what the Pi'ver Plato was doing to cultivate a trade in that direction. An answer is forthcoming, for the steamer Paraguay has arrived in the West India Docks, London, with 19,000 carcases of sheep on board,, preserved by the Qarrc Julicn process. The meat has been consigned to Messrs C. de Voux and Co., who are rapidly placing it upon the London market. It is in first-class condition although the steamer was 45 days on the voyage, and it has attracted attention amongst the metropolitan butchers. In an operation of this sort an expert knowledge of the provision trade is necessary to obtain good results for the shippers. Of course, the market fluctuates very much, but when it is known that cold storage can be obtained in London for four times the quantity of carcases shipped by the Paraguay, clearly it would be to the interest of shippers to avail themselves of that storage, and to put the meat upon the market in accordance with the demands The plan to adopt would be for shippers to secure cold storage in close proximity to the market in this country, where the meat could be disposed of to the general public without the intervention of the commission butcher by the rogu’arly appointed agents of the shippers ; and until this is done the foreign meat industry can hardly become a paying concern. We hear that some of the sheep have been disposed of at 4£d per lb. It should therefore be remembered that hitherto, in the matter of foreign meat consignments, the commission butcher is the man who has made the most profit, while the shippers and the general public have riot benefitted to the extent they might have done if a practical and organised sj’stem of distribution had been,adopted.