FROZEN MEAT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 226, 21 September 1894, Page 4

FROZEN MEAT.

(To tho Editor.) Sic,— Referring to your leader in to-nighb'a Stab (the 14th) on the frozen meat question, most of your readers will agree, with you " bhab bhe stabe ot the London market is ominous, and demands the earnest attention of pastoralists and sbippere." It appoars tome that the irregularity of ship-* menta from this country will not altogether account for the glut, but that we are sending in excess of the home consumption, especially when we consider how tightly our meap is run by thab from Australia! and the River Plate. Aba rule our meat does nob command more than from a halfpenny to a penny per pound-more than their*—in open competition in the markets of the Midlands. No combination of our growers and distributors ab Home can possibly remedy this,. and ib will, without doubt, seriously affect the future prosperity of New Zealand and make onr lands less valuable, unless other markets open up to us. One effect will be to make eheepfarming less remunerative; .another, there will be more mutton for ourselves of better quality—and ab still lower fflßces. ■ It requires>Htblo experienco to know thab our sheep are at their boat in the autumn, and if not killed then, will go back in weigfab as feed becomes scarce, and aa I suppose ib costs less to store them dead than to winter feed them, and as they can store thWin in England cheaper than we can hero, why they are son b homo, and this explains to some extent the irregularity of the shipments and the glut ab certain time* of the year. Again, by killing the sheep wJien fit in.autumn, our freezing works are .kept in full swing for'certain months till the season is over, when they are closed, ancJ many of the men disbanded ; whereas, if small numbers of sheep were being killed all the year round, ib is a question if tho venture would pay in the face of the keen competition ab Home. Tho whole questian amounts fco this: " Who- can place on the British markets the besb and.cheapesb meat?" If our growers elect! to sacrifice the quality of the carcase for the wool, they muab be prepared to make tbeir profib oub of the wool, and either takra a much lower price for the mutton or boil it down again as they used to do. The pirimesb mutton placed on the London market is the Scobch, Welsh and English Soubhdowns—all light fleeced, close-woolled sheep—while the heavy-fleeced, long-woolled sheep invariably mean, in a greater or loss degree, heavy carcased, fab and cparse mubton, quite unfit for city consumption. The good name of our mutton is in jeopardy. Leb our growers look to it.—l am, etc., N. Wood.