FROZEN MEAT MYSTERY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 773, 23 March 1910, Page 10

FROZEN MEAT MYSTERY.

■•'■-; WHO. EATIJ.IT?.. A; young colonial, who lias just returned from Great Britain, has been telling his friends in "the south of his failure to ascertain wild eats Now Zealand frozen meat. When he arrived in London he, liko many pother New.Zea- ; landers/was more than a little proud of the part played by? his country in providing food for the;-millions of the Motherland.'He neverdoubted that his new acquaintances and friends would .'recognise gladly the connection between the smiling plains ofvjCanterbury and the laden tables of English homes, and at- the first convenient; opportunity-he asked an hospitable housewife whether she used frozen meat.l£.''lt seemed that she. would have felt as little flattered had I:,asked her whether sho ate margarine,"'.ho writes. 'iAfter a few days that one nl'flst lie very careful about meat to English people of the "Setter classes. In a .London club I was informed that 'no doubt some people usedxtfjozo-n'- meat,' in ' a tone which suggesteS'that some people would, dp all sorts of odd things. My hostess in. a country house said 'that she had heard that New Zealand meat.was excellent, but that her ser-vants-had objected to eating it. The subject suggested Chicago to her, and shp expressed the hope that the- 'meat people' had improved their methods. I choked down my explanations, My confidence wiis^b'a'fce"n°*"' 0 when" I searched jiut some 'cheaTr'markots and found'the- prime Canterbury label attached to'i-joints which I. hoped devoutly had come', from'the.:.Argentine. I did not feel happy about the matter.until I had taken :an -opportunity to visit Smithfieidj and' had se'en"splendid New Zealand mutton, apparently in -prime ,conditipn,'..-on its way to ynio unknown consumers. 'A;'fow'''Wci>ks later I did find a family .who Ne,w. Zealand mutton, and' wore • not ashamed' of. it. They said- that,,.th'ey I "liiil','no desire at all to repJaep, it:,by.,Hotuefkilled meat." The experience, of this- New Zealander is not an uncommon one, and. it recalls a story told'by one of the merchants who conducts 'a wholesale business in New Zealand meat in London, . Ho changed his place of residence, and consequently became a customer of Hbe local butcher, to whom he sent ait order for a quarter of- "Prime. ...lamb. The butcher implied,.'that-he -..dealt only in English ■ meat, and could not undertake to deliver any inferior quality. Ho had quite overlooked the fact that : the man to whom he was. waiting was. the' merchant who supplied bis-weekly order for New Zealand meat. .. I