EXPENSIVE MEAT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 56, 25 February 1913, Page 8

EXPENSIVE MEAT.

A DOLLAR FOR A N.Z. CHOP. "While Crossing Canada I had the pleasure of paying a dollar (4s 2d) for a New Zealand chop, but it was worth it compared with their own mutton." So says Mr P. B. Chauvel, an Australian stock-owner, who has been on a tour of America, where he paid particular attention to the cattle industry. The cattle raiser in the States (according to Mr Chauvel) invariably ships his stock to market by rail. Droving by road is not considered satisfactory, and the country is so well provided with railroads that it is simple to rail them. They even do this if their market is only iO or 12 miles distant. Stock are not auctioned in the yards, as is done in Australasia. Agents who have consignments invite offers from likely buyers, and when one is considered satisfactory, accept it. This method struck Mr Chauvel as being most unsatisfactory to the seller, and open to abuse. Cattle are sold at per pound live weight, and at the big saleyards of Chicago, Kansas and Fort Worth they are weighed by the pen. While Mr G'hauved was in Chicago, prime baby beef was worth 11c. (s|d) per lb live weight, and it is claimed that this class only dress about 501b to the hundred, thus the cost to the carcase butcher on the' block, without labor, would be about Is. Even this high price hardly explains why the restaurants charge 6s oi 7s per portion if you order "tenderloin" steak. W'hat is termed baby beef is keenly sought after in the States now, and it is generally conceded that this craze is going to cause the price of beef to materially increase, as the shortage of aged cattle on the markets is becoming more marked eacli year. Of course the tariff blocks the introduction of outside beef at present, but during the late Presidential election the Democrats claimed that if Woodrow Wilson was elected there would be a great opening for Australian and New Zealand beef and mutton.