THE FROZEN MEAT QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1368, 7 April 1881, Page 2

THE FROZEN MEAT QUESTION.

At a meeting recently held in Dunedin for the purpose of promoting this trade one of the speakers is reported to have made the following remarks : — The superiority of the New Zealand meat over the New South Wales or Victorion meat was unquestionable. At home the discoloration of the Colosial meat had been complained of, but he believed that the discoloration had taken place before it was shipped, for no reasonable man could suppose that meat slaughtered beyond the Blue Mouutaina and sent to Sydney would on arrival be of good colour. Besides that, the meat in this colony -was of a better color than the meat in Sydney or Melbourne, for here we had the advantage of a temperate climate as against a very warm one. In the shipment in thd Protos the temperature was reduced to nine degrees below freezing point, and it was known that the more intense the cold the greater would be the disintegration of the meat in the thaw. It was a fact that every farmer knew who turned up his soil to get the froat. It was simply the effect of contraction and expansion, and the more intense the freezing the more it must disintegrate at the thaw. In the Strathleveu the refrigerator was only marked about six hours a day ; and Mr Ooleman, who erected the machinery in that vessel, pointed out some defects. The cost of freezing was estimated at from the fiftieth of a penny to the fifth of a penny per pound. That was the cost of the preliminary freezing, but the cost of keeping it on the voyage would be very slight. The Melbourne company calculated that 2d per lb would cover the oost of freight and freezing, but it did not amount to that, He had looked over some Home papers, arid had drawn up a list of the prices at which meat was selling in London and Edinburgh the week before Christmas. They would ace that at Home mutton was 4 penny per lb higher than beef. At the Home market beef was selling at from 6|d to 9d per lb— that was the wholesale price. Mutton was selling at from 9d to lOd, and the foreign meat, beef, 6d to B£d ; mutton, 7i to 9d. He did not think that this Colony would (export any beef, for there would be such a demand amongst farmers for dairy cattle, and it would pay better to export butter, at. 126s per owt than.to export beef. He had been told, in conversation here, tHat the farmers did not know hdw to make the butter, but that was very easily learned, and lie thought that any' of the Farmers' Associations which had been formed would assist an Association here in developing the trade.

"Wire with barbs upon , it is selling wonderfully in the States-rtho daily manufacture is now 200,0001b weight. . A BTOXT is told of Van. Amburgh, the great lioa-fcamer, now dead. On' one ocouion, while in a bar-room, he was- asked how he got his wonderful power over animals. He said : "It was by my showing them that I'm not the least afraid of them and by my keeping' my eye steadily on theirs. I'D gire T yon an example o£ the power of my eye.'.'.' Pointing to a loutish fellow 1 wKo 'was 1 sitting near I*y,'he said : '."Jok peef that fellow,? -He's. a regular clown. I'll, make, him come across the room to me and I won't ' say a word to him." Sitting down he fixed Mg. keen, steady eye on tne man. 1 Presently/ the ,fellow'straightened himself gradually, got Up and, came across to the lion-tamer. When he got close enough he drew back kis arm and sfcruok VVan AmburghrJi ?treraendous blow under the^ chin,, kn^c^ing him clear orerth^ ohrir, with therem*c|c : '* You'll stare at me like that again,iwon'fc you?"