The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1889. An Unsatisfactory Result.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3199, 8 May 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1889. An Unsatisfactory Result.

New Zbal.wd frozen meat has now been before the British public for about eight years. During the seven years from 1882 to 1888 the colony exported 3,395,421 carcases of mutton, and 63,494 pieces beef, beginning with 8,889 carcases of mutton and no'beef in the first-mentioned year, and ending with 938.7G6 carcases of ■ mutton, and 25,888 pieces of beef in ■ the last named, Such a quantity should, one would naturally conclude, be pretty well sufficient to give the consumer an idea what it is like, especially when it is considered that frozen meat has also been imported m large quantities from Australia and the Argentine Kepublic Yet, when we compare the prices that have ruled during, the last five years, as they are given in the circular af the New Zealand Loan'and. Mercantile Agency Company, wt find that there has been a steady and continuous decline, not only in the prices obtained, but also in the prices realised as compared with those of Scotch and English mutton. The average top prices per pound, which, it should be noted, are about |d above the general average, for the five years were as follows:-1884—Scotch, BJd; English, 7f d; Australian, 6|d; New Zealand,' 6d. 1885—Scotch, 7sd; English, 7 1-fid; Australian, 4 7-8 d; New Zealand, 6 1-12 d. 1886—Scotch, 81-Gd;, English, 8d; Australian, 45-lGd; 'New Zealand, ss, 1887—Bcotcli, 7 l-12d; English, 6 5-Cd; Australian, 4d; New Zealand, 4fd, 1888-Scotch, 7Jd; English, 71d; Australian, 4 M2d; New Zealand, 4|d. It will be seen that during these five years New Zealand mutton receded from 6d to 4Jd, being a fall of-three halfpence. During the same period Scotch mutton fell only five eights of a penny, and English only a farthing. Australian suffered a similar decline to New Zealand. The extreme range of prices was, in the case of prime Scotch mutton, 2|d, and in that of prime New Zealand, lfd. It may, perhaps, be said that-the absence of extreme fluctuations in the colonial article is very satisfactory; but it also looks' as if the market for colonial meats is so sodden that there is really but little chance for fluctuations. Whatever may be thought on that subject, we cannot get away from the fact that the export of frozen meat from New Zealand was commenced in the full hope that it would rapidly expand, and that, when the consumer had once becrme acquainted with its good qualities, ho would readily pay as high a price for it as for the local product. Yet, here we have the experience of eight years before us, with nothing but a steady decline staring us in the face, It is not an easy matter to ' account for this unsatisfactory result. We.think that breeders, as well as thoße freezing companies which make export on speculation their business, have studied the requirements of the English market pretty closely. Not : only has the breed of sheep been : to some extent improved so as to.fit : them as much as possible to the '. requirements of the Home consumer, i but everything has beei done to : freeze,them withps ijttle injury tg the meal is possible. Yet we Jiave been unable to avoid a steady deotiue. ; ■We do not think that prejudice; oan j

baveinuch to do ; with this, forprivate' samples sent .'Homo. have always ! elicited: the"■lpudest.-ipraise,: and we Know that largfrquanlities if not the whole of what is sent Home from New Zealand are retailed as English mutton. Perhaps the whole secret of the unsatisfactory-results lies in this last mentioned iact. We know that Buch tricks are to be found in all trades, and that syndicates have gone in for far larger operations than this, The combination of a few butchers, with only an insignificant opposition" and now and then a publio protest from the exporter here to contend with, ' has proved quite sufficient, not only" to keep down tho. foreign opposition, but to get its trade into their own bauds. Every now and then we were treated to a statement to the effect that shops were about to be established in- various centres of population in England for the sale of New Zealand meat; but these efforts have apparently always been nipped in the bud. The retailer probably found that, he could make fifty'per cent more profit by selling the colonial article under an English name, and therefore hauled down his sign almost as soon as he had put it up. There is only one remedy for this, namely, for the exporters to establish shops in England on their own account. There is, perhaps, nothing new in this; yet, so far as we bow, no serious attempt lias ever I been made to carry it into effect, If that were done, t)ie enormous fits which are now made by the middle mau, as well as by; the retailer at Home, would flow into the proper quarters/namely, the pockets of the producer and exporter.