THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1907. FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8366, 23 February 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1907. FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Messrs Weddel and Co.'s review, of the frozen meat trade last year is, as usual, full of interesting facts and suggestions. The trade was not quite so successful as in the preceding year so far as prices were concerned, and the increase in volume was also smaller, but as a whole the conditions were not unfavourable, and there is ground for satisfaction in the statementjthat the experience of a quarter of a century has "sufficed to establish frozen meat as a middle-class household necessity throughout the length and breadth of the land." The lamb trade is remarkable for the fact that for, the first time more than a million carcases reached London .from Australia, while New Zealand's export of over two million carcases established another record for this colony. In the matter of supplies, New Zealand's contributions, as usual, varied greatly in volume from month to month, the quantity received in any one month ranging from 285,617 carcases in August to 36,231 in November. One passage in the review is not pleasant reading for Canterbury pastoralists. "The frequent scarcity of Canterbury sheep," we are told, "compelled many buyers to use North Island or River Plate sheep, and as those classes were found to suit consumers, it was usually difficult to get such buyers back to the Canterbury brands when these again became available. This difficulty, which has been in evidence rather frequently of late years, was intensified in 1906, by reason of the low average quality

of Canterbury sheep,* which, ■ in i many cases, were equalled by North j Islands." The bad fattening season | experienced last year was no doubt partly the cause of the comparative scarcity of "prime Canterbury" on the London market, while the proverbial difficulty of having one's cake and eating it as well, accounts to some extent for what is termed the "low average quality" of the mutton. If we send all our best youngstock away in the lamb stage it follows that the wethers must be of lower quality than would otherwise be the case. Many of the lambs sent Home in the eariy part of last season are spoken of as being "thin and plain," but here again the reason can be found in the unusually unfavourable season. It is noteworthy, as emphasising a point upon which experts have frequently laid stress, that with the exception of one period, when the Home supply of sheep was short, small lambs were in demand right through the season and usually at a substantial premium over heavies.

A short time ago the Wellington Acclimatisation Society liberated five young deer near the Upper Ruamahanga in the Mount Bruce district. The Society, no doubt, hoped and i thought [that the animals would be allowed to grow in peace, and that the services of a posse of police would not be necessary to protect them from unscrupulous persons armed with firearms. Such a hope, however, has been very much misplaced. One of the deer has been found with its lower jaw fractured —evidently the work of a pea-rifle, while another of the five, a fine young stag, has been completely blinded in both eyes with gun shot. It is gratifying to learn that the Society have some clue as to who the miscreants are, and that it is their intention to institute a prosecution. If the offence be sheeted home it is to be hoped that a really exemplary punishment will be inflictec}.