First Dominion shipment

Press, 15 February 1982, Page 41

First Dominion shipment

New Zealand's first frozen meat met with a ready sale in London, even though some butchers were a little wary of it at first, and the whole shipment had been sold on Smithfield within a fortnight.

As there were no auctions of dead meat in London, the carcases were put in the hands of about half a dozen salesmen. They, too, were rather doubtful at first, but then they saw the fine big sheep. Though they had been frozen for as long as four months they were as clean and bright as newly-killed mutton.

“I heard of one West End butcher who, although he scorned the idea of ever allowing frozen meat to enter his shop, was at last persuaded to try three carcases, with the result that the next day he brought six. and the following day nine,” Mr W. S. Davidson said in his letter to New Zealand telling of the sale. “No shipment oi meat has ever attracted such attention.” The net return, f.o.b. New Zealand, obtained at Smithfield was £1 Os IPAd a carcase for the sheep and 10s 9d a carcase for the lambs. It was a substantial gain in value for with a return from tallow and skins the Land Company, after paying the cost of killing and putting the board in New Zealand, netted £1 Is 9%dfor the sheep, compared with Ils to 12s a head obtainable on the Dunedin market at the time.

From the whole consignment only one sheep was condemned. Why remains a mystery.. Mr Davidson merely commented: ‘lt’s being out of order was easily accounted for.”

House of Lords The shipment and sale of meat sparked off a discussion in the House of Lords, where there anxious questions about the effect of refrigeration on the home producer. Lord Lambington, who introduced the question, observed that with “good seasons and fair play” the Home produce could compete with that from the colonies. The House must take cognisance of the fact that in the last few days some 5000 frozen sheep had arrived from New Zealand, and it appeared from a report of the market that the meat could be sold at 6d to 7d per lb, he said, at which price it would do no harm to the English producer. When housewives asked

questions about New Zealand meat the stock reply was: “No, madam, we don’t keep it. We only stock the best English meat,” Lord Lambington said. “But somehow we do not believe it,” he added.

Lord Sudeley. in reply, said the Government did not think it necessary to introduce a bill to compel retailers to specify the origin of the meat they were selling and to impose heavy penalties on persons selling imported meat as Home produce. Article in “The times” “The Times” on May 27, 1882, commented:— “Today we have to record a triumph over physical difficulties that appear incredible. Had any fervent protectionist told Parliament in the heat of free trade controversy that New Zealand would send in to our London market 5000 dead sheep at a time and in as good a condition as if they had been slaughtered locally he would have brought on himself a storm of derision and would have been otherwise than honourably mentioned on a thousand flatforms. But this has actually come to pass. We seem only just now to have arrived at the certainty that meat can be brought in good condition a mere week’s voyage across the Atlantic in the most temerate of the earth’s zones. The present arrival, however, is by sailing ship after a passage of 98 days across the tropics. This ship is the Dunedin, belonging to the Albion Shipping Company. “An apparatus supplied by the Bell, Coleman Refrigerating Company has kept the temperature constantly down to 20 degrees below freezing point. The fact is prodigous . . . The last hope of the British agriculturists seems to be on the wing when the mountain slopes of New Zealand can now compete successfully with our own downs. Among the sights and sounds of the past are the long strings of sheep flowing in to the Smithfield market, and as the total number of sheep in the colonies is considerably more than twice that in the British Isles, it is impossible to say where this will end and how it will effect the destinies of this country. Few people have the land or the money or the skill to contend with such odds ...”

Price recession The new trade experienced a recession in 1883, when frozen meat carried by the British King and the Cataliona flooded the London market, and sold at prices lower than those ruling ealier.

Mr John Reid, of Elderslie. a prominent North Otago pastoralist, then on a visit to London, wrote strongly to the New Zealand Refrigerating Company on the subject.

“Each' salesman is underselling the other," he complained, “and in consequence, splendid meat is being disposed of at 5d per lb, while the price of Home meat of inferior quality has not declined because the salesmen refused to let it go below a certain price.

“Some arrangement must be come to among the various consignees to take this matter into their own hands and if possible, get their agents to agree to some such course, otherwise it will be they and not the agents who will have to bear the loss.” There was an immediate reaction and meat arriving by the next ship, the Fenstanton, sold at 6%d a lb and some carcases reached 7d. However, these prices did not hold for long, and the Tongariro, which followed the Doric and the Fenstanton, had its cargo sold for an average of a lb, while English and Scottish mutton was selling at more than double the price without being in anyway superior in quality.

For a 601 b sheep, at tkzd, the exporter would nett 7s 6d, besides the price of the skin and fat would tying, but against this had to be placed the cost of railing in New Zealand.

The results were disappointing and two reasons were suggested for the poor returns by Mr Charles Pharazyn, of London, who had pastoral interests in New Zealand.

“The fist, a most obvious one, is that when a new product is marketed in such large quantities, as it has been over the last few weeks, it can not be expected at once to find regular channels of consumption.

“The second reason for the disappointing prices is the quality of the meat. We have been breeding with a view to fat, as that has paid best for boiling down purposes. Now, this type of sheep is not what

is wanted here. The sheep of course must be fattened, but the breeding must be such that a larger proportion of meat is formed, not fat alone.

I see great difficulty in breeding this type of animal without scarifying its wool producing qualities, but until this is accomplished, I am sure that our average prices must be considerably less than those obtained for English sheep. Of the very large number of New Zealand carcases I have inspected it is evident that only a small proportion is suitable.”