SYDNEY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11231, 31 March 1897, Page 2

SYDNEY.

[Correspondent “ Canterbury Times.”] THE FROZEN PRODUCE TRADE. One of the most hopeful factors in the national properity is the frozen produce trade, and some cheering intelligence with regard to it is coming to hand. Some months ago delegates from a big Manchester Co-operative Association visited Australia. It is a very large buyer of provisions of all kinds, and the verdict of its representatives on Australian products was looked forward to with some anxiety. So far as we have been able to learn, it lias been very satisfactory, Mr Benjamin Jones, one of the delegates, has now committed himself to the statement, which has been cabled from Lohdon, that in, time butter and dairy produce from Australia will displace the productions of other countries in the markets of Great Britain. Canada is showing great activity in the same direction, and a large number of co-opera-tive creameries are being established. But Canada is frozen up for half the yeaif, and the stock, consequently, have to be artificially fed. The same remark applies to Denmark and, in a less degree, to Trance and other countries which compete with Australia. Canada, by the way, is herself becoming a customer of Australia for frozen mutton. The Warrimoo, which is about to sail for Vancouver, will take 2000 carcases, the largest shipment that has yet been despatched to that destination. THE FROZEN MEAT ASSOCIATION. A good deal of interest has been shown of late in the mission of Mr E. N. Twopeny, the editor of the Pastovalisis Review, who was deputed by an association of freezing, companies to visit England and endeavour to arrange for united action in various directions affecting the prosperity of the trade. It seems probable that his visit, although it will not effect all that was hoped for from it, will result in some good. Irregularity in supply is one of the most crying evils. In December last year about three months" supply was dumped

down in one “ pop ” on the London market, and prices dropped at once from 2jd to 1-Jd per lb. As the charges of killing, freezing and transportation amount to about 1-Jd, it is plain that heavy loss was involved. Another matter, which the Australian companies have in their own hands, is the freezing and sending forward of inferior animals, which depreciate the prices of all the rest. This ought to bo made a high crime and misdemeanour. On the other side one of the chief evils is the largo number of selling agents, who, in their desire to get the meat off their hands, compete with one another, and force prices down to an unnecessarily low point. The chief need of the trade, however, is to widen the area of consumption. Even now frozen meat is only used by a comparatively small proportion of the population of Groat Britain, and there is a great deal of stupid and unreasoning prejudice against it to overcome. Mr Twopeny lias given attention to all these points, and ho sails for Australia this week to furnish his final report to his principals. BOARD OP HEALTH. A few days ago the Board of Health were the subject of grievous complaints from the aldermen of the Glebe on the grounds that under their management the abattoirs were becoming an offensive nuisance. They have now been appealed to by the butchers who use the abattoirs, who complain that whereas the cattle, they slaughter are inspected and a considerable number condemned, cattle slaughtered in other parts of the city escape inspection, and thus they are subjected to unfair competition. As a matter of fact the meat supply of the whole colony, with the exception of that killed at the Glebe, escapes inspection, so far as the Board of Health is concerned. Also the Board’s inspection is of a very erratic nature. In December last, out of 94,000 sheep slaughtered at the Glebe only two carcases were condemned as unfit for human food. At the Aberdeen meat works of the Australian Chilling and Freezing Company, out of 14,971 sheep slaughtered, no less than 5129 were rejected for human consumption, chiefly on the ground of want of condition. It is very difficult indeed to believe that only two animals out of 94,000 slaughtered at the Glebe were unfit for food. The condemnations of the Board vary so widely, also, as to arouse keen misgivings. In 1595 the number of bullocks condemned at the Glebe was 2592, or 3'34 per cent. In 1596 it was only 569, or 0’94 per cent, the proportion of condemnations being more than three times as large in one year as in the other, though there is nothing to show that there was any appreciable difference in the general standard of health of the animals dealt with. THE FEDERAL ELECTION. Among Conservative people the result of the Federal elections is little short of a revelation. There was evidently no need for Queensland to be afraid of election by the people, for a steadier, safer lot of politicians than those who have been returned it would be difficult to select. This solves quite a number of problems. The referendum loses its terrors. There is no need to insist on a property qualification in voting for the Senate. Turn the whole colony into one electorate and the Senators elected will be quite Conservative enough for anyone not absolutely a stone image. The Labour party are particularly sore over their defeat. They declare that the candidature of the Cardinal, though he was innocent of any plot in the matter was deliberately contrived in order to destroy the chances of the Labour men. It ensured a big religious vote, and the religious vote, whether pro-Catholic or anti-Catholic, is always a Conservative vote. There is something in this. Indeed, I think I hazarded a forecast of this kind before the election took place. But the candidature of the Cardinal had nothing to do with the folly of tho Labour men in running ten candidates when their voting power barely entitled them to one or two, or with the parallel imbecility of putting forward a platform at variance with the common sense of the main body of the electors. THE DELEGATES. After all the delegates are not altogether reactionary. Mr Barton, although a protectionist, is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of young Australia. The three members of the present Ministry, Mr Eeid, Mr Carruthers and Mr Erunker, cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, bo considered Tories. Neither can Mr Wise, still they take their place by right among “ the respectables,” which is, I think, the secret of the jubilation. Look at the_ moral effect on the British investor, say the knowing ones. People in the Old Country have been given to understand that in New South Wales labour is rampant, that Mr M’Gowen is really the power behind the throne, whereas, poor man, he could not even get a place in the first baker’s dozen, notwithstanding his inclusion among the, ultra-Protestant “ bunch.” The defeat of the Cardinal, who was less than a thousand votes ahead of the Labour leader, was the surprise of the election. Every one who knew anything at all before the event was pretty sure the Cardinal would be in the first six. “ His presence in the Convention,” pompously remarked the Review of Reviews, “will add to its importance in the eyes of his own Church, and

will even give it a new distinction in the judgment of the outside world.” .it will do nothing of the kind, for the pot has boiled over. The Cardinal, however, is better off than Mr Fitchott in that he has no rash predictions to explain away. “FERTINA LENTE.” It is now beginning to dawn upon some of the delegates that they have undertaken a very big contract. Some of them are modest enough to believe that a little study and deliberation might be of advantage in this important work of nation-building. They are not like the late Lord Brougham, of whom it was said that he was prepared at a moment’s notice to take command of the Channel fleet or to take charge of a difficult midwifery case, and that his lack of naval or surgical knowledge was more than supplied by bis splendid and imperturbable self-confidence. (These diffident gentlemen propose that immediately after the Convention has assembled, the different subjects shall bo portioned out to committees, who shall take time to master them in all their bearings, and that the Convention shall then reassemble. This will mean a six months’ interval, during which the Premier can visit England, Queensland can make arrangements to bo represented, and quite a number of other birds can be killed with the same stone. RELIGIOUS FEDERATION FAILS. A movement has been on foot amongst the Wesleyans for some time to unite with the Primitive Methodists and Bible Christians, bodies which hold similar religious beliefs, although their ideas of church government are somewhat different. The “forward” party are all in favour of union; the older ministers and laymen, as a rule, are opposed to it. The question came to a vote at the Conference last week. The advocates of union were clearly in a majority, but it was equally clear that if they wore to force their views on the rest a great deal of ill-feeling would be aroused, and possibly a disruption would be caused within their own body. It was considered wiser, therefore, to shelve the question for the present, which was accordingly done. A PROFITABLE PROCESS. The process of the Edible Fat and Meat Extract Company is beginning to attract considerable attention. • It is pooh-poohed by some of the most experienced men in the meat trade, but it is claimed on its behalf that it enables those who use it to obtain a shilling a head more for their sheep than was possible under the old process. A shilling a head does not sound a great deal, but if this claim can bo substantiated in such a manner ns to court the most thoroughgoing criticism, it will i simple revolutionise the trade. A con- i troversy on the subject is now proceeding in the Australian Meat Trades Journal, and wall repay perusal.