OUR FROZEN FOOD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 264, 9 November 1901, Page 2

OUR FROZEN FOOD.

EXTRAORDINARY GROWTH OF A GREAT TRADE. We •vt''<> 'he following from the London Daily .-.press of. September 7th : Since 1880 the people of Great Britain baye eaten 63,059,021 carcases of fr;z .n mutton and lamb. And yet there ara butchers who declare tbat they npvur sell anything but the " best English " - at best English prices. | Messrs John Rose and Company, who fent; five carcases of prime New Zealand Mutton by the Grimsby relief train on Thursday, are one of the few 'firms doing a straightforward business with the British housekeeper in New Zealand mutton and American beef. Wbile other people, in defiance of the Board of Agriculture and the Merchandise Marks Act, are selling New Zealand mutton as British, Mr Hose plainly placards his shop in Bishopsgate Without, and five other depots, with notices showing tbat he deals in foreign me\t and poultry. " I started one Saturday some years ago, said Mr Rose yesterday, and I have since sold thousand—indeed, I placed a contract for 10,000 sheep at one time. I have done all I can to persuade English people that New Zealand meat is cheaper and more nutritious than home-grown. The growth of the foreign mutton and lamb trade has been most extraordinary— I mean the whole trade, not my own retail business only-and, as the Express has stated, a considerable quantity of the meat is sild as British at British prices. In 1880 the trade commenced with an import of 400 carcases; in 1900 nearly six and a half million carcases were imported, about one-half of which came from New Z°aland. An of six steamers arrive in the Tlmn s every month from New Zealand, from 40,000 to 100,000 c u'casfis each. At Smithfiel 1, prime New Zealand, which makes a better price than any other frozen mut on, is now selling at 2e 3d to 2-t 7d a stone of 81bi>, in comparison with Scotch and English at 4s 4d to 4s 8.1. In face of these facts, it is oertiinly absurd for anyone to pay the price of English mutton for froaen. It ought to be perfectly easy for inspectors, appointed by the Rojal Agricultural Society or any other wellrecognised body, to secure evidence of the sale of frozen meat as English, and proceed under the Merchandise Marks Act The result of such prosecutions would be beneficial all round. English farmers would get a better price fer their own home-grown product*, and the honest sellers of New Zealand meat woald be greatly en oouraged." On the question of prosecuting the people who dishonestly e-ell frozen meat hs British, a correspondent wiites Surely if the New Zealand Government can take proceedings and obtain convictions under the Merchandise Marks Acts in this country without the assistance of the agricultural societies in procuring evidence, its is absurd of the Eqgljgh Board of Agriculture to say that it cannot do likewise,

Has tbe Board no inspectors, as the New Zealand Government seems to have, in this country, who could institute a few prosecutions on behalf of the British agriculturists, whose interests the Board ia supposed to represent ? These inspectors could easily obtain satisfactory evidence of fraudulent sales to ensure convictions being secured if they desired."