THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7229, 1 May 1884, Page 6

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

TO THE EDITOR. ' Hsu, —I observe the Gladstone GovernjritDt has -withdrawn the amendments by which, it wished to modify the.Lords' Bill f<■•■• the Prevention of Cattle Disease, which now shuts out from the United Kingdom all live fat cattle. Tbis r step must neces

sarily further enhance the price of beef at Homo. It aeems to ine that it would be very desirable to ship more extensively New Zealand frozen beof. The prejudice that exists with regard to American beef is greatly owing to. the singular mixture or ingraining of tho fat with the lean, which imparts to the palate a peculiar bilious sensation which I have never experienced in any other beef. Certainly the beef fed in New Zealand mostly resembles that of tho Home roared. Why all cargoes should bo sent to London, is, to my mind, a grievous mistake "Why not ship to Bristol, Liverpool, Hull and Glasgow, thus getting nearer to the groat manufacturing centres, and lessening railway freight. The artisan class are less prejudicial than thoso more closely connected with country interests'. You may be assured that tho Dulco of Richmond and his followers look with no favourable eye upon the inroad of cheap beef and mutton, and London society for the _ most part is extremely susceptible to aristocratic and fashionable prejudice. The wholesale carcase butchers, who so largely supply the trade of the large towns and give wide credit, are some of the shrewdest men in England, and it will never do to suffer them to monopolise the sales; the meat Companies should take up this position so as to secure the middle and, generally, tho largest profits. Therefore, when the Companies can feel their way eSeetively, it would be well to establish freezing dep6ts at each of the large landing ports, so not to be compelled to effect immediate sales, but to regulate the supply to the trade, and so keep up a uniform price and profit, and in case the middle men must be dealt with, it would then prevent hurried and disastrous sales. This Colony most assuredly has a heavy stake in this newly risen trade, and although I do not doubt that those officially concerned have fully, by this time, realised all the difficulties that beset its introduction at Home, and whose anxiety must be by no means light, they should claim our indulgence in their .efforts to remove all reluctant and obstinate obstructions, few of which the general public are cognisant of, in the deviation of the old grooves, and competing in a business hitherto conducted by a class of men whose sympathies and leanings have always been strongly allied with the agriculturists of Old England. But still the demand for cheap food at home will force, by-necessity, a trade with the Colonies, which must finally end in success. The Liberals well know at" Home it is only by cheap provisions that the price of labour can be kept down, and the supremacy of commerce retained. But dear food, as you know well, means revolution, disloyalty, and anarchy, which our aristocratic classes are so blind to comprehend.—l am, &c, Temploton, April 29. G. H.