NEW ZEALAND LAMB

Southland Times, Issue 18851, 17 June 1920, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND LAMB

REVELATION TO NEW YORK. NEWSPAPER’S ANTI-PROFITEERING ENTERPRISE. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 16. The arrival of the steamer Armagh at New York with 290,666 pounds of New Zealand lamb lor sale in the American market was announced last month by a cablegram dated May 9. From files to hand by mail it transpires that this consignment was being put on the market by the Globe newspaper, the avowed object being to produce a reduction in the prices being charged to the public for home-grown lamb and mutton. “The finest lamb in the world, New Zealand lamb, is here at a price which will smash the market with a saving of from twelve to fourteen cents a pound to Globe readers,” runs the announcement of the scheme. “All this week the wholesale price of top-grade domestic lamb has been 34 cents a pound, with medium grade selling at 32 cents. Lower grades have brought less, but even old sheep have been bringing 25 cents wholesale. The Globe has effected arrangements whereby the choicest quality of New Zealand lamb will go immediately to demonstration stations at 204 cents a pound wholesale for the whole carcase.” Explaining that the arrangement was made with the express purpose of endeavouring to break what were claimed as the inflated prices charged for meat by the i packers, the writer of the article added that a second shipment was on the way, carried by the steamer Suffolk. After that a steady stream of New Zealand mutton and lamb would pour into the New York market. The arrangement called for 6,000.000 pounds a month for six months at a little less than eighteen cents a pound for lamb and not quite sixteen cents for mutton. “Of course this means a tremendous sag in the price of meat all round,” he continues. “The Globe price will strangle the upward tend.” A series of articles continues from May 8 to May 18, that being the last number of the Globe to arrive. As soon as the shipment became available a list of those retail shops selling New Zealand lamb was appended daily, the public being urged to buy and thus, while securing lamb of the finest quality, join in the fight against what arc described as “putrioteers,” “pilfiteers,” and “profiteers.” While the merits of the scheme and the saving to be effected are emphasised, particular stress is laid upon the quality of %he meat being offered. “New Zealand lamb ranks higher than the lamb of any other country on earth,” states one paragraph. “Its quality is of such surprising excellence that retail butchers who now see it for the first time can scarcely believe the evidence of their own senses. One simply cannot exaggerate the really astonishing superiority which distinguishes the New Zealand product from that of the American market. It represents a difference so substantia] and self-evident that only your own experience can reveal the truth.”

“ Yesterday I stood by while the Armagh’s hatches were opened," continues the writer. "I watched her wonderful chambers disgorge the finest specimens of lamb ever examined by the Government veterinary, each separate carease bearing a tap with the signature of the official who inspected and passed it. The dressed meat is done up in an individual cheese cloth garment, as if cleanliness and decency meant something to (he New Zealanders, who are destined to exhibit the extraordinary merits of their native lamb to the admiring eyes of hungry Americans.” The opinion of (he man engaged in the meat trade is detailed in the following passage: "Alfred Benjamin, an importer of Argentine meat, purchased a leg of New Zealand lamb. Reporting his experience he said: T realise that I am not doing my own business good in giving expression to my enthusiasm over tliis New Zealand lamb. The flavour is unlike that of anything in the world. The fine hotels have never served anything to compare with it. The baby lamb served as a speciality is so far inferior in quality and flavour to this New Zealand meat that one wonders why New Zealand lamb did not come here many years ago. It certainly has come to stay.’ ” The reception of the meat by the public is described in the following enthusiastic farms; "The stores were actually crippled by the rush for New Zealand lamb. The demand for legs assumed a capriciousness not easily described. No lamb has more than two hind legs, yet the public in its delirium of ecsfacy seems to act on the assumption that New Zealand lamb consists exclusively of leg*. At any rate tho«e who have had their first taste of New Zealand lamb, from whatever cut of the carcase (hey were lucky enough to pet a portion, will scarcely ever again be satisfied with any other kind.”

Tlin Armagh sailed from Wellington on Marrli 27 for New York. The whole of her consignment was not to the Globe. The balance above (he quantity taken in connection with (he scheme was consigned to Armour <k Co., and it was stated that that firm had purchased in New Zealand at something over eleven cents a |>ound. It is not revealed by what agency the Globe transacted its purchase of meat.. It. is stilted, however, that the negotiations began sixty days prior to the arrival of the ship, and that further purchases were being arranged in connection with the same project. The paper claimed that hut for its inter ference the whole of the shipment would have been quietly put on the market, by the packers at prices equal to those (hen being charged for home-grown mutton, and that extortionate profits would have been made.