THE PRESERVED MEAT TRADE IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 52, 20 January 1872, Page 2

THE PRESERVED MEAT TRADE IN ENGLAND.

[Glasgow Mail.] The increasing price of butcher meat in this country is becoming a very serious matter, and, when considered in connection with the prospect of a supply of fresh meat from Australia, a very interesting one. There are said to be about nine millions of cattle and thirtyfour millions of sheep in Great Britain to a population of over thirty-one millions. In round numbers, this would give about 2-7ths of a head of cattle and 1\ of a sheep to each head of the population. In Australia there are four millions of cattle and fifty millions of sheep to a population of less than two millions, which would give two head of cattle and twenty-five sheep to each inhabitant. In this country the supply has reached its maximum ; in Australia, the power to increase is piactically without limit. In these circumstances, we cannot but look with very great interest to the various experiments which have recently been made to supply this country with fresh meat from Australia,. About three years ago, a discovery was supposed to have been made in Sydney of a process of freezing, by which whole carcases of meat could be transported fresh from Australia to London, to be hung up in our butchers’ shops side .by side with newly slaughtered British cattle. The experiment proved a failure, but another process of more humble pretensions has proved more successful, and has been in operation for several years, by which Australian fresh meat is conveyed to this country cooked in hermetically sealed tins. Of this process we have given a full description. A large amount of capital has already been invested in the undertaking, and the trade is an increasing and prosperous one, as the following figures show:— Progressive imports of Australian tinned meats in money value—lß6o, £321 ; 1867, £18,820; 1868, £45,746 ; 1869, £80,385 ; 1870, £203,874 ; and estimated for 1871, £600,000. When compared with the commerce of Great Britain, these amounts may appear insignificant ; but the progressive increase is immense, and it shows that the article has stood the first and most severe test of the market - and been approved. That it will go on increasing we cannot doubt. It took forty years after the first importation of Australian wool to this country before the value of the import reached £600,000, and now, after other thirty years, it amounts to £10,000,000 —and Australia is looked to by the manufacturers not only of this country, but of the whole world, as the principal source of supply of fine wools. There is a great deal of energy in our Australian cousins, and they will leave no stone unturned to increase and bring to perfection this new article of commerce. What, then, is this Australian tinned meat ? It is advertised to be sold in tins of 2lbs, 4lbs, and 6lbs, &c., cooked and without bone, at prices varying from 6d to 8d per lb. It is alleged that fresh butcher meat loses in cooking from ten to twenty per cent, and that the average amount of bone sold with butcher beef is twenty or thirty per cent, so that, of eatable cooked beef, there comes to the table only about two thirds of the meat purchased. If this is the case, is is quite clear that at the present price of butcher meat the Australian cooked and boneless beef costs only about one-half of English. Is it wholesome 3 On this point there does not seem to be any question. It is admitted to be wholesome and nutritious. Australian cattle are bred from the finest selected stock in England, and Australian grasses are sweet, nourishing, and fattening. But is it toothsome ? Is it palatable ? Here is the battlefield. A vigorous correspondence has recently been carried on in London on this subject, in the pages of the “ Echo,” and it is amusing to note the varieties of opinion expressed. Take the following extracts as a fair sample : Canon Kingsley says—“ If on trying the Australian meat they find it not worth eating, they are at least much more dainty than your humble servant, his family, and all his class who have made the experiment.” A Mr G. Campbell says—“ I sincerely hope I may never be invited to Mr Kingsley’s table. The meat is boiled to rags, and

quite pappy, nearly half fat, and quite appeases one’s appetite to look at it. “JSil Desperandum” says —“Mr G. Campbell must have got hold of, one of the bad tins; let him try another.” “Post Card ” says —“ I venture to hazard the opinion that the complainants are either butchers or interested parties, as after repeated trials I can affirm that it is fully entitled to all the praise it has yet met with.” T. H. Tucker says- ‘ You can’t swallow it. Mix cocoanut with old junk, soak in gravy, and try to eat; I need say no more.” A. J. B* sa Y s “I havo now had Australian beef and mutton for self, wife, and five childien for months, and my experience is everything in its favor.” The Doctor says “ It is too much cooked, but it is very good cold, excellent curried, and made into rissoles, or with mashed potatoes, I really think that anyone who cannot eat Australian meat must he in want of the doctor.” J. J. says—“ My experience is that of your correspondent the Doctor.” And, to wind up, a correspondent signing himself C. says - “ No one has mentioned the uses for which it is super-eminently fitted —-viz, the making of sandwiches. The richness and softness of the beef, with its accompanying jelly, malm it, when placed between two pieces of bread and butter, considerably more palatable than the best fresh roast beef.” We believe we have fairly represented this combat of opinion, and we leave it to such of our readers as may be inclined to give the article a trial to decide the matter in the domestic debating club. We have only to add that, if this meat is wholesome and palatable, its introduction to the public is a great national benefit more especially to the working classes —and we do trust that, if it works its way into favor, it may arrest the continually advancing price of butcher meat.