FROZEN MEAT AND RETAIL SHOPS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10263, 4 February 1899, Page 8

FROZEN MEAT AND RETAIL SHOPS.

In qioving a vote of thanks to the Directors and staff of the Christchurch Frozen Meat Company yesterday, Mr W. Wedd'el referred to the advance in the trade generally. Looking back on the history of the jmeat trade, he said one should remember how, shortly after its initiation, many prominent pastoralists considered that if-we ever attained the position of being able to ship a' million of carcases in the course of-the year, it would only be done oy severe depletion of the flocks, and that practically in a year or two the whole trade would fizzle out. At that time 12_ millions constituted the total of the flocks of the colony. Now we saw how the forecast of thos. pastoralists had been entirely falsified. Now we had shipments'amounting to 3 million carcases, and instead of the last sheep having been shipped we had close on 20 million sheep left in the colony. That proved that this was no evanescent trade, but, on the contrary, that it would continue with us, and he hoped would be equally prosperous. At the present time the mutton consumed in the United Kingdom was composed of about 60 per cent. of Home killed meat and nearly 40 per cent, of frozen meat. As that record had been attained in somewhere about 15 years, he thought that it was a marvellous one, and showed that in spite of what may have been said to the contrary, the means of distribution in the United Kingdom were not so faulty as some people wished us to believe. This had been partly brought about by people in England being able to obtain frozen meat for what it was. At the same time, he did not assert that the means of distribution were perfect. He frankly admitted that- 1 the distribution could be improved, and one method adopted by the Company was an excellent one, namely, of having in a few of the large centres in England one or two show shops. At the present day some-shops selling frozen meat did not present an attractive appearance, and instead of drawing customers were more likely to drive them off. So in opening show shops by way of advertisement, the Christchurch Meat Company were making an excellent move in the interests of the pro-duc-rs here. It was not meant to come into conflict with the retailers, but was meant as a means of materially assisting these retailers in extending their operations, and, perhaps, in giving them a lesson of improving the meat trade for themselves.