FRESH MEAT FROM AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4576, 1 April 1880, Page 3

FRESH MEAT FROM AUSTRALIA.

_____ i Mr Nathaniel Cork, of Lombard street, Lon- ' don, in writing to the " Times" on this ] subject, says:—Tbe accomplishment of this | achievement has been looked forward to for : many years witb the greatest interest by the ] Queen's subjects in all the southern colonies. : From their superfluity they have hoped that some day they might supply the necessities of the old country. The late Mr Mort, of Sydney, it is said, spent from his private fortune £70,000 in works and experiments for I preserving meat in a fresh condition by a freezing process. His great object has been attained by a simpler method than be adopted, and it iB now demonstrated that i fresh meat may be brought from Australia, in any quantity, at a very small cost. In the ] Australasian colonies there is a stock of 61 < millions of sheep and 7£ millions of cattle. The fact that this enormous reserve may be 5 made available in London in a presentable condition, at a cost of about 2d per lb, witb a further 2d for the expense of freezing and the f cost of shipping, is one of the first importance. It affects not only the colonies, but _ also the masses of our own population. I \ have bad the advantage of dining off a splen- 1 did joint of Australian beef brought by the I steamship Strathleven, and purchased by a friend at tbe Smithfield Meat Market on Saturday. It was a joint of prime fat ox , beef, sucb as one would see in a Weat-end butcher's shop, and when cooked it was remarkably tender. I cannot doubt that as some thirty tons were delivered by tbe Strathleven, very many of your readers havo also dined off Australian meat, and fancied they were enjoying well-hung South Down mutton, or prime short-horn beet For many f years Australian cattle breeders have spared no expense in obtaining from this country the 1 very finest animals, so that in eating Austra- i lion beef we know that the quality is equal to - the best home-bred, the only difference being j tbat the colonial beast is fattened on grass, while the English is stall-fed. The freezing process does not in any way deteriorate the | meat.