FROZEN MEAT.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1016, 2 April 1883, Page 2

FROZEN MEAT.

Can nothing be done to start this industry in Patea district. On all sides we continue to hear of the increasing demand for shipments from this colony, and if our readers will turn to an extract from the London letter of the Auckland Star they will find further testimony to the success of the trade. Alluding to the cargo by the Sorrento the Stars correspondent says:—-“ This mutton realised 7-|d per lb wholesale, and is to-day selling at nearly all the crack West End butchers (as prime English mutton) at full retail prices. Though, as has been’stated, there is hardly a shop- ip Belgravia or Pimlico which has not a quantity of New Zealand mutton displayed, it is a positive fact that only one—a stallholder in Leadenhall market—openly admits possessing any.” A more flattering testimony to the excellence of our meat could hardly be given, but it is not to be supposed that that slate.of things can be allowed to continue. The trade has to be developed, and, in place of prime English mutton which the confiding Londoner imagines he is. purchasing, he to be told that it is prime New Zealand meat that he buys, and that he ought to get it at so much less than he really pays. It order that this may be properly understood, the Australian Company are about to open retail agencies in various parts of the metropolis, so that people will be able to get the right article under the right name. If the West End butchers can pass off to their customers our meat as prime English mutton, there can be little doubt that when the former is obtainable at a reduced price there will be a great increase in the consumption, far beyond the capacities of present companies in the Colony to supply. We have on a previous occasion pointed out the benefit* which snch an outlet as a meat company would afford to owners of stock in Ahis district, and as the recent attempt to float a company in Wanganui proved a failure, there appears to be an excellent opening lor one on this Coast. It would have to bo got up with the co-operation of the Hawera district, though of course the works would be better hero on account of the facility for shipment to Wellington where the Horae ships load. It should also be a subject for enquiry whether meat canning on the American principle could not be successfully established in connection with a meat freezing company. The canning industry appears to bo a safe one, and the capital required is not extensive. These matters are well worth attention: first, because a direct pecuniary benefit to farmers will result from any increased demand for stock; and, secondly, because the general welfare of the district will be augmented from the establishment of any industry suited to its capabilities and resources. The Farmers Club might find a fruitful topic for discussion in the above "suggestions.