FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1030, 27 November 1891, Page 25

FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

The mysteries of the meat trade are vast, complicated, and profound. They were so in the beginning. They are so now, and there are men determined that they shall be so no longer. They are guarded by a small band of Illumanati, more jealous and nearly as fierce as the dragons which guarded the fabled golden apples of old. But the bravo explorers, who are persevering as well as energetic, are winning their way into the maze with excellent results. One of these has lately returned from tho seat of the mysteries and told his fellov colonists what he saw in his excursion behind the veil, which has baffled so . many enquirers. Thi3 adventurous explorer is Mr Turnbull, the manager of the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association, who went Home a few months ago on behalf of the Co-operative Associations of Christchurch and Timaru, with a roving commission to look into things. The result of his investigations, which he has given to a representative of our Southern contemporary, the Lyttelton Times , is very interesting, a little startling, and very suggestive. It ought to put all the growers of mutton in New Zealand very much on the alert.

The first of these revelations concerns the condition in which the meat arrives at Home in the freezing chambers of the various steamers. We have all gob the idea firmly fixed in our minds that everything goes well on board ship. Mr Turnbull declares, with a mad dening air of well-grounded conviction, that “scarcely a shipment arrives from anywhere that does not bear a large percentage of loss through damage incurred on the voyage.” This is clearly not a random shot fired by a hasty man into the thick darkness, for Mr Turnbull proceeds to say what becomes of the damaged meat. The enterprising coster fills his barrow with it at 2d to a pound, and retails it among the poor people, who prefer bad 'meat to none at all. The next revelation is nob so new by any means, being in the habit, in fact, of coming out of the darkness into light in company with enterprising explorers of these mysteries. It is that large quantities of colonial mutton go into consumption as the best Home-grown. Mr

Turnbull, after a lengthened observation by well-arranged plans carefully carried out, lias come to the conclusion that very little New Zealand meat gets into consumption as colonial, the enterprising middleman doing as large, lucrative and dishonest a business as the Banditti of tho Roman Campagna, or the brigands now harrying the domains of the “unspeakable Turk.” The time has come to put a stop to this Speculation of Peculation in the Middle Places. But how ? Mr Turnbull suggests that the experiment so splendidly carried out by Lord Onslow, with the help of his friends in London, is the very besr. lever for the purpose, if only it be used with sufficient promptness and publicity. We have, he says, only “ to persuade the educated and middle class to overcome their prejudice aghinst the meat,” to make sure that not a pound of the best mutton in the market shall ever be sold for less than sixpence. If we can at the same time persuade the sea carriers to cut off that trade with the coster at its source, very litb'e would bo left to bo desired in the London market. This persuasion, Mr Turnbull sajs, we may safely leave to the new arrangement coining into operation next January, by which the entire risk of the sea carriage is to be borne by the shipowners. It has, we may add, long been the complaint of the shippers that much of their meat came to grief at sea. Mr Turnbull, not satisfied with investigating the London market, threw a flood of light on the market of Liverpool. It has been for some time understood that one of the' direct steam companies is quite ready to lay on tonnage for the great Lancashire port. It is the headquarters of the Plate mutton trade, which is, happily for tho impending attack on its headquarters from New Zealand, not by any means as flourishing as its founders once hoped it would be. At the last annual meeting of the River Plate Frozeu Meat Company, the chairman, we remember, deplored the carelessness and indifference of the. Piste farmers in not attempting to breed a better article, and admitted at the same time, with many lamentations, that the absence of a good Scab Act is a fearful handicap to all attempts at improvement. In the very hour in which the Plate people confess their inability to compete with our meat, we - have placed before us the advantage of the Liverpool market. The facilities for storing and delivering, Mr Turnbull says, are perfect, and on a gigantic scale, the cool air storage being much superior to that to be had in London. Liverpool, moreover, is the feeder of the largest manufacturing district in the world. Lastly, he learnt from one meat salesman, of Liverpool, that he buys 200,000 carcases of New Zealand mutton every year, and that he is only one of several who are in the business. It appears, then, that the stronghold of the Plate mutton, which is also the best distributing centre of the meat trade in the United Kingdom, has already beeu indirectly attacked from the London side—at a loss, we may add, of a farthing a pound. Why not attack directly from the sea, securing the great advantages and saving the farthing 1 We shall, as Mr Turnbull points out, he blind to our best interests if we do not.