THE HOME MEAT SUPPLY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 232, 11 July 1872, Page 6

THE HOME MEAT SUPPLY.

[Front tlie Evening Star.) Occasionally subjects crop up in the Imperial Parliament which show that, notwithstanding the vast advance in social and political science made during the past thirty years, there is a leaning to interfering with industry by a certain class of legislators. We do not suppose such men as Mr Muntz would go so far as to prescribe the cost of a man's coat, or whether the poor should dress in lindsay woolsey or broad cloth. He might perhaps be content to let them do as they chose, so long as his coat did not cost him an extravagant price and there was a chance of getting a new one when needed. But we see no difference in principle between dictating what the inhabitants of a country shall wear and what they shall ©r shall not eat. Mr Muntz, no doubt actuated by the best intentions, drew the attention of the First Lord of the Treasury to the excessive price of meat in the United Kingdom, and to the " serious reductions in the stocks of sheep and cattle," and suggested as a remedy that Her Majesty should be advised to issue " a Koyal Proclamation (in accordance with former precedents) enjoining all loyal subjects to abstain from the use of veal and lamb until such time as the stocks of cattle and sheep shall • have regained their former numbers." We need hardly say that such a proposition was net entertained by the Government. Mr Gladstone had less faith in the loyalty of the people, where the luxury of the table is concerned, than Mr Muntz. Such a proposition might do in Athens under a Lycurgus, or in ancient Rome; but sumptuary laws in England long remained a dead letter, and the contempt with which they were regarded fully justified Mr Gladstones- reply. He said :—: — He was obliged to give a decided answer n the negative to his Son. friend, admitting at the same time that he had a very considerable sympathy with the spirit of the question. It was not possible for Her Maj sty's Government with any advantage to atte . pt to issue a Koyal Proclamation in the nature of a sumptuary law, which would not be obeyed, and would have a tendency to bring authority into disrepute rather than to promote the object of his hon. friend. — (Hear, hear.) To repress gross and needless «aste, and contribute as far a* possible to the provision of an abundant supply of animal food for the people, was a matter of the greatest importance to the country, and he wished there were any legitimate means hy -which the purposes of hia hon. friend could be promoted, but he was afraid that to exercise public authority on the question would not be becoming or expedieut. The subject is however interesting to the Australian Colonies for it points to the advantages likely to accrue to the grazing interests through the opening up and extension of a market for preserved meats. The high price of provisions has naturally drawn attention to the causes and probable means of supply, and the Times has published not only an able review of an article which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, written by Mr H. S. Thompson, of Kirby Hall, Yorkshire, but has supplemented it by an article condensing the information into readable space. So intimately is the subject connected with our industrial and commercial future, that we have no douht those portions of that article bearing upon the prospects of our pastoral interest will be read with j pleasure. The Times considers the [ rise in price is not owing to dry seasons or murrain, but to increased consumption, and continues : — In considering a subject of this sort, three questions naturally arise : — What have we actually got ? what do we want that we have not got ? and how is that want to be supplied? Ihe calculat ons made by Mr S. H. 'I hompsox, of Kirby Hall, Yorkshire, bring us by a succession of steps, which we shall venture on abbreviating, to some highly practical results. Every year, it seems, our farmers and graziers now send to market some 2,337,000 cattle, calves included ; 13,200,000 sheep and lambs, and 4*137,000 pigs. That, at least, was the product, according to careful estimate, of the year 1871, and if we convert these animals into their weight in dead meat, we shall find that just 1,266,478 tons of that description of food, was supplied for public consumption from the farms of the United Kingdom. But there are the imports from foreign countries to be added? Certainly, though we fancy mo 4; people will be surprised to find how little they count for. All the cattle, sheep, and pigs brought to us from abroad in 1871, though the imports of the year were the largest * ever known, produced but 81,578 tons of dead meat in aid of the home stock. However, the account is not yet quite closed, and here we come in sight of a land of promise. Besides the imports of live cattle, there were imports of provisions, fresh, salted, or otherwise preserved ; and while the supplies of the former kind exhibit very little elasticity even under the stimulous of strong demand, those of the latter are already multiplying abundantly. "We must here put a few figures, respecting the meat supply in the years 1870 and 1871, again before the public, for the tale they tell ia most important :—: — 1870. 1871. Tons. Tons. From home-bred animals 1,240,603 ... 1,266,478 From imported animals 66,556 ... 81,578 From imported provisions 57,743 ... 99,125 Total meat supply 1,364,902 ... 1,447,181 It will be seen that the total resources of 1871 were in excess of those of 1870 by upwards of 80,000 tens*. But whence did that increase come ? Almost half of it came in the shape of "imported provisions" — that is to say, from Australia ; one-third was due to improved home production, and just onesixth, and no more, arose from imports of live cattle. The conclusion is plain. If we are to augment our meat supply to any good purpose, we must turn to British pastures and Australian sheep runs. After a few observations, showing that if disease could be so far checked as to save but two per cent, of the sheep and cattle annually dying from it, the result would be an addition

equal to the live stock imported, the Times says : — Before long, we trust, Australia will tell for more in this recKouing than at present, but, as things now stand, a good or bad grazing season in this country affects the meat market more sensibly than any fluctuation in the imports of live cattle from the Continent. ... Toe reader has now seen precisely what we have got, and the most promising plan for getting more ; but there still remains the inquiry— what more do we want ? That is a question not to be easily answered, though one of the calculations arising from the statistics we have given may as well be mentioned. If the whole amount of our meat supply, home and foreign together, is distributed over the entire population of the country, it will give, we are told, just about " seven imperial store per head " a'l round. Now, a stone of meat a eight pounds, so that every man, woman, and child in the kingdom would have 561 b. of meat in the y iar, or a little over one pound a week all through from Christmas to Christmas. We need not add that the distribution is by no mean? of this uniform character, but that is the view which may be given of the actual extent of the supply, and its proportion to a natural or probable demand. That this demand will grow, as it has grown and is still growing, we can hardly doubt ; nor can anything furnish more conclusive evidence as to the increasing prosperity of all classes of the people. It would be curious to learn what the con n nption of meat per head vraa in 1832 ; but that "butcher's meat " ha? been brought within reich of class after class is beyond all dispute. Meat can hardly now be described .is " unknown " to any class, and this enormous rise in the demand, be it observed, is in spite ef a prodigious rise in price. The additional thousands who now eat mutton more or less frequently eat it at twice the price it would have cost them forty years since Even twenty years ago meat was to be bought at sixpence a pound, and it is not very long since the price asked by butchers provoked a kind of popular riot, like the bread riots of leas exacting generations. However, with our own pastures, easily improvable, and with Australia in reserve, we may contemplate the future withouti thout d spair, and rejoice unconditionally at that increase of consnmption which tells so unmistakably of the ever-extending distribution of national wealth and popular comfort.