TRICKS OF TRADE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 144, 19 June 1915, Page 11

TRICKS OF TRADE.

On 31st May the Commonwealth Minister for Customs, Mr. Tudor, made an interesting statement regarding the withdrawal of mutton and lamb from the export cold stores and its subsequent sale in Melbourne as fresh meat. He mentioned, for instance, that out of one lot of 31,229 carcases 729 were rejected as not being fit for export, and all but four of them went into local consumption. Those four were so bad that they were sent to the boiling-down works. In a consignment of 7382 carcases 202 were rejected, and they were also sold in the retail shops in Melbourne. Mr. Tudor states that from figures which have been submitted to him he is convinced that a considerable quantity of prime frozen mutton and lamb has also gone into local consumption, and that the public had been compelled to pay fresh meat prices for it. Mr. Tudor says that the branding oi tho meat with the date on which it was put into the cold stores has now been instituted. He will welcome the co-opera-tion of those State Governments who control stores where only local supplies are kept, to ensure that the meat is not kept there too long.