Criticism of the Meat Trade Arrangements.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 124, 22 November 1895, Page 4

Criticism of the Meat Trade Arrangements.

♦ 'BT TELEGRAPH. — PBKSB ASSOCIATION. J Chbistchtjbch, 21st November. Mr. John Holmes, who has just returned after a long visit to Great Britain, and who spent a considerable amount of time enquiring as to the disposal of New Zealand produce in England, expressed the opinion, in the course of an interview, that the frozen meat trade was very badly managed. If, he said, the management was good, Canterbury mutton should be 6d or 7d per )b. At present the butohers who professed to ' make a trade in New Zealand meat bought few carcases of New Zealand . and many inferior sorts, Biver Plate or Australian. The New Zealand newlythawed was sold as English ; those not sold when freshly thawed became black through the serum of the blood running 'out, and leaving the solid constituents to coagulate into a dark-coloured stuff of the most forbidding appearance. These were then sold as New Zealand, and so were those from Australia and Biver Plate. Two questions, Mr. Holmes said, must be solved before the trade could be made a success— one in. regard to the defrosting of meat, and the other that of disposing of it by people under some obligation to sell it -as New Zealand Nelson Bros', system of defrosting was undoubtedly a great improvement on the ordinary plan, but could be* oarried out to only a limited extent At present frozen meat was used only by the middle classes ; working people would not look at it. To overcome this prejudice, he thought the Government, or those interested in the trade, should give free dinners, to ■whioh representative working men should be invited. He had been assured by butchers that the meat was now not so good as it was some years ago, being too young. Prime 4-tooth wether was much better suited to the London market than piime 2-tooth.