OUR HOME TRADE.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1526, 15 April 1882, Page 4

OUR HOME TRADE.

It is very much to be regretted that one shipment of frozen meat and dairy produce after another from these colonies should be thrown upon the London market in a more or less unsaleable condition. We had really thought that by this time the new trade, of which we were all so hopeful, would have been carried on without the slightest risk of loss from bungling in the process of freezing. But the difficulties are not yet thoroughly innsteied, although it must be said that the chief difficulty seems to consist in finding men who w ill conscientiously cany out the instnictionsof the promoters. A couple of days ago, for instance, it was stated in London telegram that the meat .sent Home by the Protos had suffered tlnough a temporary stoppage of the icfrigeiating machine on the voyage ; but it now turns out that the damage was not done on the voyage at all, but before the ship left the port. Both the meat and butter were shipped in condition. Such careless blundering is haidly conceivable ; but there is no denying the facts. A large shipment of meat and butter is actually sent away from Melbourne in such a condition as could only In ing disgiaco on the colony, and tend to 1 uin the trade in the very outset ; If we mistake not, this is not by any means the first time that the mischief has been done before the vessel started. Now carelessness of this sort is surely quite pi eventable, and it is, as we have just said, difficult to understand how it should ever have occurred. There is every reason why the utmost vigilance should be exercised in shipping meat for the Home market. In the first place, fiozen meat, say what people will, is not quite eqiial to fresh moat. In the second place, the prejudices of the English people are very stiong in all matters relating to food, any attempted innovation in diet being as much suspected and opposed as an attempted innovation in religion. The very poorest of the poor would not eat dried beef that was imported some years ago from South America, and we may take it for granted that the same class will have to be educated up to the eating even ot our Australian and New Zealand mutton, if they know it to be such. In the third place, we may be quite sure that the Americans will not be foolish enough to send unpalatable stuff to the English market, and it is with the Americans that we have to compete. For these reasons it is of the utmost importance that our new trade should be conducted with the greatest skill and care. An accident now and again to the refrigerating machinery on the voyage is perhaps unavoidable, but there ought to be no difficulty in shipping good meat, good butter, and good cheese. Tndeed, if butter and cheese Avere properly made and properly packed they could be sent Home , without the least risk in specially-fitted sailing ships, like the Dunedin and Mataaura, under the lefrigerating chamber, and it ought to be remembered that no amount of refrigerating will turn bad butter or cheese to good. But the colonists have still a great deal to learu, in the matter of handling their produce. —

' Ask no woman her age, ' says a recent writer on social ethics. Of course not. Ask her next best lady friend, she will never fail to give the information. Grass grown on manured land gives a more nutritive fodder, richer especially in albuminoids than that grown upon mimanured or poorly manured land. The difference is sometimes as great as 10 per cent. In selling an ox weighing 20001bs.,only as much nitrogen is sent from the farm as would be lost by selling about one and a half tons of English hay. Of phosphoric acid, such an animal would represent an amount found in five tons of hay, while one-eighth of a ton of hay would supply all the potash the ox lias in his body. Mr George Mackay, ex-chief constable' of Lanarkshire, died on December 30th, aged 72, at his residence; Auchingramont, Hamilton. On retiring in 1875 from the office he had long and worthily "filled, hereceived five j eats' pay, or £2500, from •the Conunisssonevs of Supply, that being the' highe&t sum they could' legiilly vote him. The public, .'\,nd the countiy gentry presented him on the same occasion with a piece of plate and 800 sovereigns, and the,, members, of the.polipo force also 'presented him with «%, plate and 100. sovereigns.' ' >'■