AUSTRALIAN MEAT IN ENGLAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1129, 22 February 1870, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN MEAT IN ENGLAND.

(TVora the " Auscrcilas'.-iV" January 20.) The great requirement of tho timo is how to, make the new countries aud the old satisfy each other's wants. Atone end of the world are hungry millions of human beings and myriads of the unemployed ; at the other end a superabundance of food and men scarce, savo afc a few busy seaports. Ifc is too bad that labour should be surplus afc the centres of industry, while over sea thero are vacant or thinly peopled regions iv want of it; and that the produce of Australian pastures should go to the tallow vat, While with the underfed masses of Europe meat is the rarest of luxuries. As The Times not long ago remarked, " What is science worth if it cannot accomplish the transfer?" Modern science, which has achieved such marvels, is surely capable of providing for these necessities in some systematic and practical way. Bufc as regards ono branch of the questiou we are certainly nearing the satis-., factory solution of the problem, when j already there are daily supplied in London; ] as the newspap.ors inform us, dinners of Australian iaeafc, "profuse in quality, excellent in material, and toothsome in. flavour, afc the rate of threepence each ; while a large and daily increasing clientele are furnished with first-class beef arid mutton afc the fabulously moderate price of fourpence halfpenny per boneless pound — being in facb about' one-third of the sum charged for prime meat in the London", butchers' shops." At Mr. Tallerinan's establishment in Norton Folgate, " between 1,000 and 1,100 wholesome and succulent meals are daily consumed, the charge varying from two to three pence." According to fche Daily Telegraph, " the greater number of the agency's customers appear at present to bo clerks, shopmen, aud office boys, with occasionally others of a higher class, and here and there a working man iv fustian or shirt-sleeves." Between 000 and 700 sausages, or ". nuggets," as they are termed, are sold over the couuter every day, and " most of these hut go off between 8 and 11 a.m., being purchased by open-air labourers for their midday meal." It will be seen thafc the English public have got over the doubt or prejudice with which the new supply of food was afc first regarded, and we are told that '• the agency expects such a development of the traffic as will enable it to supply the British public with antipodean beef aud mutton at yet lower prices." The food is found eminently satisfactory by the working classes, and tho many persons of rank and of more cultivated pa lates who have visited fche tables in Norton Folgate, or attended at the public dinners which were given to the working men, have uniformly borne witness to the good quality of the various dishes. Tho Times alone finds fault. Its critic fouud the fare " wholesome," but " nofc particularly palatable." A dish of Irish stew " was a good one, and very cheap at the price." But tho meat should be served in joints. The English populace are nofc good cooks to dress the mincemeat properly. " Though its tasto and smell aro both somewhat peculiar to those who have been accustomed to European meat, probably neither is sufficiently disagreeable to keep it out of tho market if it could only be cooked in larger pieces and with less trouble." In reference to the justice of this criticism. Mr. Solly, the eminent surgeoa of St.Thomas's Hospital, " bore testimony to the excellence of the fare in Norton Folgate, especially tho sausages. As a medical mau he could assure the meetiug that the best way to keep the poor free from epidemics was to keep them well; led." Aud he liked the Australian meat' so well that he had ordered a supply for his own use. So, too, Mr. E. Curry s'n-i! I had have some difficulty incoming t ) ' . • meeting after the unfavourable ro-ji.j.-i in The Times of the experiment ab Lambeth Baths, had he uofc gome himself to the establishment in Norton Folgate, in company with Mr. Xitto, and there dined. Ho thoughb the penny plates v^vy gocd, and the twopenny ones of Irish stew positively excellent." Aud at the Lambeth dinner, on tho subject of The Times' remarks next day, Mr. I. Hughes, M.P., observed : — " vV_th respect to fche meat upon which they had dined, it was not of course to be compared with our best home killed beef and mutton, but it was boljh savory and nutritious, and the man who could not make a hearty meal of ifc was nofc deserving of much sympathy." The purveyors will no doubb give due consideration to the hostile comments so exceptionally expressed. Ifc is possible that in such a performance as the conveyance of meafc fresh and good over a distance of 15,000 miles', the acmo of perfection has nofc been j'efc attained, and that further improvements will take place. But, in view of tho evidence of tho other, and very competent witnesses we have quoted, we must regard tho criticism of The Timts as a display of " fine taste " in contrast to good taste and coinmou-senso. It is intelligible that the beef and mutton fetched from lho antipodes may not compote in flavour with a sirloin fresh from the vale of Evesham, or a saddle straight from the wolds of Norfolk — things which, by the bye, in these days of stall-feeding, and of continental imports, very i'ew of. even the well-to-do classes often use. But the meat may be capital meat, and fall short of that epicurean standard. And considering the manner in which the English poor aro fai, and the sort of animal food which the humbler classes in London have been in the habifc of getting, when thoy could get any at all, tho remarks iv The Times seem strangely deficient in meaning and judgment. Nobocly can realise the poverty and misery which exist in that metropolis anion;; those, who live by manual labour, without visiting any Saturday night those streets of the poorer quarters where the people of tho neighbourhood resort to buy their .necessaries. Thero a dozen years ago — beforo the time of the cattle-plague and the scarcity and high prices it caused — ■ you would see crowds of pale and gaunt women afc the stalls trying to make up some sort of Sunday dinner for thoir families, and cheapening stale scraps aud odds and ends of meat, or rather carrion, which in a new country the household animals would reject. No wonder thafc the benevolent rejoice at a movemeut which brings the plenty of the new world to the straitened homes of the old. No wonder it has tlieir streuuous co-operation, for it will indeed work a revolution if it cau place within reach of the people enough of good wholesome palateabic meat. Especially in that climate is it necessary, bufc there, nevertheless, because of the vast increase of population, it has nofc beeu daily enjoyed by tho humbler classes for many generations. Nor is Britain tho only market which awaits our enterprise in this way. In France and Germany there is tho same want of a sufficient supply of animal food. Wo sco that in Berlin horse flesh is now in regular consumption. Lasfc year several thousand horses wero killed and their flesh sold to tho poor. The seal has been broken of what promises to become beforo long our greatest Australian branch of trade. -- — -