AUSTRALIAN TINNED MEATS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 183, 10 August 1871, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN TINNED MEATS.

(Vo the editor of the Argus.) Sir, — As we believe the reports by lasb mail of t:\n sttign ition in the saltw of tinned meats are much exaggerated, we beg to annax extract from a letter received by us from an old Australian squatter, w<{ii;h shows that t'u's article is gradually getting iuto favour with tie working clas?S3s in England, notwithstanding the reported failure of forced sales by auction. DaFj. Campbkll and Co., 67, Queen street, Melbourne, Juljr 13.

*' Cattle are very hig'i here, and graziers !>ay meat will iiold its price. A fortnight ago, at-Mirket II rbo •<>' Kair, some store cattle sold as higo as L 33 ami L 36 per head, and the average of the sales were from L 22 to L2S per

eid for well-bred ca'tly. Welsh aid St-otch were lower — say, from Lls to L 18; these cittle are animals that would hardly be looked at in your tnirktt and would at fie outside, make 50-t. to 605., in 1869, when I was there. Tiie li.mod meat still commands a ready sale, as well as the ' extract,' and my informant, who is a grocer in a large way in Leicester, sells a large quantity amongst the mrnafacturing people and operatives of tie town. Woollen manufactures, elastic web, boot and shoe trades are the chief articles of manufacture, and the population, by the census of this year, approaches 90,000 souls. Should the price oi* meat contiuue to keep U[), I t'liulc we may fairly reckon that our tinned meat will get such a hold on the carket that it will be difficult to shake it off, and the graziers and farmers here are frightened at the name of Australian meat, as they think it sure to bring down prices. But it is quite a mistake ; the people that buy our meat would go without, because they cannot afford to give such high prices as are current now in England for the meat in the butchers' shops ; therefore the two classes do not clash."