WHO EATS THE MUTTON?

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 69, 22 March 1910, Page 7

WHO EATS THE MUTTON?

A : NEW _*___.—>ER'S INQUIRIES. (By Telegraph.— Corrdent.) C-G-ISTCTTJRCH, this day. A young colonial who has just returned from Great Britain has been telling his friends of his failure to ascertain | who eat's New Zealand frozen meat. When he arrived in London he, like many other New islanders, was more than a little proud of the part played by his country in providing food for the millions 'of the Motherland. He never doubted that his new acquaintances and friends would recognise gladly the connection between the smiling plains of Canterbury ■■ and '.the laden tables of English homes, and'at the first convenient opportunity he asked an hospitable housewife" whether she used frozen meat. . "It seemed that:.she would have. as--little, flattered had 1 asked her whether she _— -margarine/ he writes. ."After a':few learned that one must be very careful about -mentioning frozen meat to English people of the better classes. In a London club 11 was informed that 'no doubt some peo-r.

pie used frozen meat,' in a tone which, suggested that some people would do! all sorts of odd things. My hostess in a country.-house said that she had. heard that New Zealand meat was excellent, but that "her servants had objected te" eating it. -The subject suggested Chicago to her, and she expressed the, hope that the .'meat people' had .improved:"- their methods. I choked down- my explana--. tions. 'My confidence was shaken a little I when I searched out some cheap markets' and found the prime Canterbury label attached to joints 5 which I hoped de- j voutly had come -from, the Argentine. I did not feel happy about the matter until I had taken an opportunity to i visit Smithfield, and -bad seen "splendid! New Zealand mutton, apparently in prime condition, on the way to some un-1 known consumers. A few weeks later 1 I did find a family who used New Zealand mutton, and were not ashamed of it. i They said that -they had no desire at all ! to replace it !by home-killed meat."