FRESH MEAT FROM AUSTRALIA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 3, 21 April 1880, Page 4

FRESH MEAT FROM AUSTRALIA.

Mr. Nathaniel Cook, of Lombardstreet, London, in writing to the Times on this subject, says : — The accomplishment of this achievement has been looked forward to for many years with the greatest interest by the Queen's subjects in all the southern colonies. From their superfluity they have hoped that some day they might supply the necessities of the old country. "The late Mr. Mort, of Sydney, it is said, spent from his private fortune .£70,000 in works and experiments for preserving meat in a fresh condition by a freezing process. His great object has been attained by a simpler method than he adopted, and it is now demonstrated that fresh meat may be brought from Australia, in any quantity, at a very small cost. In the Australian colonies there is a stock of 61 millions of sheep, and 7\ millions of cattle. The fact that this enormous reserve may be made available in London in a presentable condition, at a cost of about 2d per lb, with a further 2d for the expense of freezing and the cost of shipping, is one of the first importance. It affects not only the colonies, but also the masses of our own population. I have had the advantage of dining off a splendid joint of Australian beef brought by the steamship Strathleven, and purchased by a friend at the Smithfieid Meat Market. It was a joint of prime fat ox beef, such as one Would see in a West-end butcher's shop, and when cooked it was remarkably tender. I cannot doubt that as some thirty tons were delivered by the Strathleven, very many of your readers have also dined off Australian meat, and fancied they were enjoying well-hung South Down mutton, or prime short-horn beef. For many years Australian cattle breeders have spared no expanse in obtaining from this country the very finest animals, so that in eating Australian beef we know that the quality is equal to the best home bred, the only difference being that the colonial beast is fattened on grass, while the English is stall-fed. The freezing process does not m any way deteriorate the meat.