COLONIAL MEAT IN ENGLAND.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9835, 18 September 1897, Page 8

COLONIAL MEAT IN ENGLAND.

A CHRISTCHURCH BUTCHER'S VIEWS. Mr Thoma3 Gray, butcher, of Armagh street East, who is well known in the trade in Christchurch, has just returned from a visit to the Old Country, and comes back charged with information respecting the working of the retail trade in frozen meat. His stay in England was chiefly in and around London, but he paid visits to every market within reach of " the big smoke," and also went through Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and as far as Norwich on the e.ost. He followed the meat from the market to the various distributing centres, and thence to the shops in every portion of the city ami suburbs. Ab the Smiihfield and Lcadenhall markets, where the bulk of the colouial meat is sold, he is satisfied that no better arrangements could be made for its disposal. The meat is carefully handled, and reaches the shops in good order. Bat the fault Mr Gray found was in the thawing process now employed, which leaves the meat in a pale condition, and when it is cut, particularly on the 3econd d.iy from the market, it has a reddish-brown colour which is decidedly objectionable to the consumer, though the flavour is as good as any other meat. Mr Gray say 3it is a fallacy to contend that it< is frequently " palmed oft'" as English, Scotch or even Welsh mutton. Nothing of the sort, he declares, is attempted. In all parts of London there are now shops avowedly selling colonial mutton, and many of the owners particularly define themselves as vendors of "Canterbury" meat. In many ca3es the shops are combined under one proprietary, one window and door being especially marked " Euglish meat shop " and the other " colonial (or Canterbury) meat shop." Ho also found that the demand tor English as against colonial or even Canterbury meat was equal to fully fifty to one. There is no doubt that the prejudice against colouial meat exists to a far greater extent in the minds of the older people than it does with young people. A gentleman who keep 3 a private boarding-school told him thai; the boys made no objection themselves to the use of colonial meat, and the saving in the household expenses would amount in a year to £200, but the parents protested against its use. Another schoolmaster has a meat contract for the yoar, the price being lOd per Iball round, and he dare not nocupt colonial meat for the same reason. A res-taurant-keeper, in a very busy street in the City, tried tho use of Canterbury mutton for a time till he found his customers falling off gradually, and had perforce to discontinue its exclusive use. Mr Gray says he visited the shops in the slums, and found a number of vile shops wliere colonial meat of the very worst description was sold at from per pound upwards. But there were exceptions, as for instance, in Whitecliapel there is one shop styled " The Canterbury Lamb and Colonial Moat Shop," in which the meat was of the very best, and quite equal to the best English. Indeed the lamb was in nearly all cases equal lo English. Elsewhere there are shops which use the words " Canterbury" and " Prime Canterbury" freely, and where none but New Zealand meat is sold. The public ought not to be deceived by this, but in reality are so, as they buy the meat in the belief that it is Kentieh mutton they are purchasing, whereas it is the trade term for New Zealand meat of good quality. In the better class of "Colonial" and "Canterbury" meat shops Mr Gray found prices ranging as follows:—Legs of mutton 6gd per lb, shoulders lamb 7£d per pound by the forequarter and 8&d by the hindquarter, There was little doubt the middleman and large purchaser for distribution reap a large profit out ot the meat before it reached the shops. What is wanted is more direct connection between the exporter and blie retail butcher to enable the latter, at a greater advantage to himself, to sell the colonial meat.

Mr Gray attended as many live stock markets as his time would permit. At Islington what struck him most was the evenness of the pens of sheep submitted, together with the extreme cleanliness of the yard 3 and surroundings. The stock sold there and at other saleyards are driven to the butchers' premises—not to abattoirs at all, where they are slaughtered privately. There are abattoirs at Deptford, where the imported live stock is landed, and the stock must be killed within four days. It surprised him to see in thickly populated parts the shops, slaughterhouses and dwellings all on the one section, but in such places everything is as clean as a new pin, and everything offensive is at once removed. In comparison to the strict ieg illations in Christclmrch the system is a decidedly peculiar one. The Norwich market was the one which attracted Mr Gray most. Canterbury auctioneers could take a hint from those engaged there in the quick despatch of their business. There were about 100 head of cattle, 500 fat sheep, and a good few horses for sale, and the auctioneers disposed of the whole, mostly in single lots, in less than two hours. There was no dwelling, two or, at most, three bids, and the animal was disposed of. Speaking of the voyage Home ami back, Mr Gray said he never saw such filthy places as the butchers' ahop3 in Rio Janeiro. The superiority of the Canterbury mutton and lamb was evidently proverbial there, and a consignment of both was discharged from the Gothic. Mr Gray con eiders it will be a grand thmg for Canterbury especially and New Zealand generally now that the duty formerly imposed upon sheep imported to Cape Colony has been removed, as the sheep there are ot a most wretched description, not equal to what are termed " boilers" here. Everywhere in Kngland he saw Queensland beef for sale. Hard, dry stuff it- seemed, but it sold freely at a low figure.