New Zealand Meat at Home.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4254, 19 August 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

New Zealand Meat at Home.

A London butcher, writing to the Times, expresses in very decided terms his abhorrence of frozen meat in general, and New Zealand frozen meat in particular. From a butcher's point of view, it is too bad that, just when the importation of American beef has become unprofitable and has fallen rff to a large extent, the market, should be threatened with an overstock of carcasses from the other hide ot the world Some allowance niu*t, therefore, be made for the wrath of this representative of the London butchers. When frozen beef 6rst comes into the market he says, it looks bright and clean, but is as hard as if it had been drawn through a horsepond The London butcher declares that nobody sees anything of this frozen meat, because it is only sold to the poor at a few pence per pound, just as the offal of the English meat is sold to the poor at reduced prices. The truth of the matter is, the meat, after thawing, can be sold in a condition perfectly dry and clean, and good butchers are willing to give from s|d to 6jd a pound for it, a price which admits of a profit of a penny to twopence a pound. It would be interesting to know what the profit per pound of the retailer of home^fed beef amounts to. The price of butcher's meat has nearly doubled within the last ten or twelve years, and yet cattle-raising is not any more profitable than it once was. If the farmer has not derived any advantage from the rise in price, into whose pocket does the increase go?— Northern Whig.