NOTES FOR GRAZIER AND DEALER.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 8992, 3 January 1895, Page 2

NOTES FOR GRAZIER AND DEALER.

m "Weekly Press." By Straggler. A leading Brisbane live stock authority in writing recently to an influential New Zealand pastoralist says:—l am in receipt of your letter of 22nd. I never heard any report of mortality among New Zealand sheep sent to these colonies, on the contrary where they have been procured from reputable flocks they have given entire satisfaction so far as I have ever heard. I did hear complaints, some of which were well grounded, about some inferior sheep, having been sent from New Zealand to the last public sales In Sydney, but these were from flocks heard of for the first time on this side and probably little known in New Zealand itself.

The pastoral industry here Is in a terribly languishing condition. Store cattle are unsaleable and although best fat bullocks realize from £2 10s to £3 101 in the Brisbane sale yards, one can buy prime fats up to 850lbs all over the interior in the thousands at from £1 10, to £2. Freezing has by no means helped us out of our difficulty, on the contrary, prices of late have done little more than cover cost and in some instances shippers - have not only lost all but have had to make good large deficits. Our attention is now being turned to shipping live cattle. One gentleman is now with us and another en route from Liverpool, both well accredited to our principal bank here. Unless the cost of freezing is greatly reduced by the adoption of ammonia machines and the price of meat greatly enhanced by the new thawing process I see nothing for It but tinning and the tallow pots.

Oar Meat and Dairy Produce Encouragement Act has just been amended to admit of three-fourths of the Dairy Fund being applied to the granting of bonuses for dairy produce exported, and power is given the Board that administers the Act to apply a portion of the funds~ accruing ufnder it. to organise means for the better distribution of our meats in England or elsewhere, and also -to provide for due inspection, and marking* before shipment. The amount of the Stock' Tax for purposes of the' Act was last year over £60,000. This year it will be considerably in excess of that amount...

I am greatly obliged to our southern friend for placing this information at the disposal of my readers.

The second wool sale of the present Christchurch series does not, to growers as a whole, afford much scope for congratulation. But to one section—l mean those who were sufficiently courageous to sell at the first sale—the result does supply some satisfaction and those who cleared at the first attempt may well ba excused for now pointing to the soundness of their anticipations. So far as one can reasonably conclude the prices at the second sale when compared with those of the first represented a dropof id per lbon superior wool and possibly a shade more on inferior descriptions.

It ia really a very difficult matter to know what to do. Not the faintest glimmer of future improvement can be discerned on the horizon of the.Home market.' The attendance of well commissioned foreign buyers is as good:as ever,, and one would certainly be, inclined to think that with a vast amount of .money at their command these visitors would scarcely sit still and see. wool passed if there was anything in It from a speculative point of view. The fact, however, that they do express Indifference", beyond the limits they have in remains and thus but a little comfort falls to the lot of the shipper .from the attitude of the buyers, who are credited—rightly I* believe—with the beat possible information regarding wool prospects at Home.

There is one feature of the wool sales which seems to mc to call for note. We are informed at every corner of the street of the enormous quantity of wool which is being offered in the Christchurch sales. True, the quantity is much greater than usual, but it must be borne in mind that included in the total of 15,369 bales offered at the second sale was a good proportion offered and passed at the first sale and one or two large lots which were put in to swell catalogues only for the two occasions and which were never for a moment intended to be sold locally. From the 15,369 bales subtract the wool offered at the first sale and also these "show" lines and a by no means alarming total I venture to predict would remain. When the wool figures for the year are made up, the compilers should be careful to credit clips with one offering only. Even for the purpose of childish business competition the public should not be misled,

Many small growers have reluctantly sold because they did not consider their lines sufficiently large to ship, and are lamenting accordingly. I trust any of our friends who are in this position will at once take consolation from the actions of many large growers who put their -two and three hundred bales practically in the bands of buyers and accepted what seemed to them to be the inevitable. And after all buyers appreciated this kind of spirit; to the extent of making the inevitable not such a sad fate after all.

I regard it.as a matter of Imperative duty to attend the Addington Christmas market, and accordingly this year sallied forth with a bulky note-book to record for my future guidance the improvements of another year. 'There is still much room in that note-book, for 1 found no occasion to use it. It Is always well to get over an unpleasant task quickly, aud for .this rc-aion I will make no further reference to the Christmas cheer which those who hare

to rely on last Add iogton market for act,, likely to get. Sufficient to say that it was ' one of the weakest displays of meatfot the Christmas week which I ever remem. ber seeing in Addington Yards. To my mind the gentlemen who so ably compile the .. report of market trans* '' actions at Addington for the dsll* papers are not on some" occasions sufficiently emphatic iv their descriptions of thei difficulties of the salesmen. For example, if I read that towards the con. elusion of the day, on Wednesday last sale, were effected with difficulty, I should understand things were dull. But if I were ' to be told straight that some hundreds ot sheep could not be given away I should get a clearer idea of how things were. And such criticism would quite correctly dcs, cribe the conclusion of last week's sale at about 7 p.m.

I am informed that the Wensleydajj, ewes recently imported by Mr W. B. Clark. son have Increased the flock and two very fine lambs now daily delight the owner's eye. I wish Mr Clarkson good luck with the new comers.

Some fairly large transactions in lamb*" for export are recorded. Growers have, \ however, to climb down a little in their ideas of value: about eleven shillings seems to be a ruling figure for delivery up to March. Mr Murphy informs us that the "Flock Book" is doing well and thai entries are simply flocking (this is not intended for a joke) in from breeder* and more especially from tho Southerners.How, I wonder, is the North Island section of the movement getting on.

In a recent article the SaxoMs Bay Herald, in discussing the question of American beet and New Zealand mutton, says:—The other day we published * summary of an interview with Mr Montague Nelson, the managing director of ,Nelson Bros, and Co., in which he stated that a main factor in determining the price of frozen mutton was the American supply of beef. Most people, he argued, preferred beef to mutton, especially iv the north of England. When beef was plentiful iv supply and low in price consumers turned to It and neglected mutton, which, to make a market, had to be reduced to a price considerably under that of beef This, we believe, was au entirely novel view of the position to most of our New Zealand flockmasters, but it has since received strong confirmation from ao entirely independent source, which giver our sheep-farmers food for reflection.

The confirmation our contemporary mentions is the report of Mr Brace, Chief Inspector of Stock for New South Wales who recently paid an official visit to the United States, his chief mission being to report on the methods of canning and preserving meat there, and the live stack - trade with England. Towards the close of his report he thus speaks of the intimate ' connection between the American beef and Australian mutton:—" I have gone at com siderable length into the particulars of the American beef trade with the United Kingdom, into both the live stock and chilled meat trade, because, although the importations from New Sauth Wales at least will consist principally of sheep, the American cattle trade, more especially in .t the shape of chilled beef, has a very impor- "- tant bearing on the price of our frozen mutton in England. For those who pur- -* chaae frozen mutton also at times buy chilled beef, and as the majority of them * prefer beef to muttou, the result is that when the price of chilled beef is so low as to be only a little higher than frozen mutton, the beef is purchased 'in preference to the muttou. Then, again, the American shippers are. so very much nearer to England than those in Australia, and are so very well and promptly advised by. - their agents as to the state of the' meat ' market and its prospects, and have always such ample supplies of beef at their cost, mand, that they can take advantage ot - the slightest rise in the market and send over at once full supplies of beef. And, notwithstanding that It frequently Bells at prices which, taking those quoted In the Chicago market and those realised in England, must, after paying freights and charges be anything but remunerative to the shippers, heavy shipments continue to arrive every week, and of course have a depressing effect on the Australian and New Zealand frozen.. meat trade. The - effect of the American; supply on the British meat- market will, liowever, be - better grasped by ourVowhere when the enormous quantity which was sent over'/ during last year, in the shape of cattle and .- chilled beef to Great Britain, la.put into, the equivalent of merino-.sheep weighing,' say, 50lb each, thus:— .

Sheep, 243,825 live cattle, enoh 890 ib dressed . . weight, is 223.942.5001b, dr, gfty ... 4.478,850 . 14,559,9i90wt fresh bear, which it, say ... 3,837,495 1

Equivalent 7,91* &t» ,- That is to say, the quantity, of beef sent• y In 1893 by the United States to Great Britain is considerably more than twice «•" '. much as the mutton shipped there by the Australian colonies, while the America* ■. supply for that year was less than that for; ; each of the previous three years."

This is somewhat of an "eyeopener" Mr'Bruce the question of whether the present extensive sbipmeaif 7 of beef from the United States will continue, and we regret to say that he has only cold comfort for the colonial sheepfarmers. " I have heard the remark repeatedly made," he says, "that It Is only a quettiou of a comparatively shot* time .when the United States, with the . rapid increase of population from natural , growth and Immigration, will require all. the- meat', sho can produce, or, at least, that with these additions to her population, meat will rise to a figure which must make the price too high to export, and, of course, that Australian baef and mutton >euld then bring better prices. As will be seen from the figures I have already . quoted, there was a considerable falling. vOfTlast year in both the live cattle shipments and those of chilled meat; hut, as 1 have shoivn, this decrease was only a temporary one, for the' shipments of both live cattle and fresh meat have been heavy since the beginning of the present year, notwithstanding that the prices received In England for both the live cattle and meat were apparently unremunerative. Bat even if the snnply of meat were to ran so .- short in the United States as to diminish ' the quantity exported from that country, it would nob fall solely to Australia to iuake ■ up this deficiency, for poo only is Canada steadily increasing the production of meat . and shipping regularly toGreatßritaf n f but} the supply of beef and mutton from South America is bound both to. improve itt quality and increase in quantity, as there ; are large tracts of country in Argentina and also in Uruguay and Paraguay, wel- y adapted for cattle, still uastocked: and the improvement; of the quality of both cattle and sheep Is now making, rapid progress in all part's of. the world, and especially In Argentina. But apart altogether from the supplies, which may come.from the countries to which I have •> here alluded, in order more thoroughly to put our owners on their guard against relying on any considerable decrease In the shipments of live cattle and fresh raeac to British) and Continental markets. 1 featf that a shortage, such as that which some of our owners are expecting to take place in the United States, will not occur; for—what with; Ihe additions which and certain ■to be made there to the present, area of land under tillage, with the 1m firovemeots by fencing and water-ccaser?* ng which will be effected on the native pasture*, with the adaption of a better system of crop growing, the laying down more land in cultivated grasses, the growing of roots/ green crop*, and in the breeding, management, ana fattening of stock-* it may. 1 think, be fairly, assumed, that the production, of beef and mutton in the United States will, for acpp_der»M* time at leaas, keep pace with, the growth, of the . population, especially it it should happen, ac there seems to be .considerable probability of Ita doing, that the emigration toAmerica will not in the coming <deetde.be so extensive as in the past." The lesson which Mr Bruce deduces fross hi* investigations is simply that preached by Mr William Nelson unceasingly here--tf?«S the only hope for these colonies »«•;, Improve our flock* and herd* mxtil oolyj.. meat of absolutely first-class Quality fift** shipped. ... 7, ; -' ': \M