THE CONSUMPTION OF MEAT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1157, 4 May 1894, Page 7

THE CONSUMPTION OF MEAT.

From Our Special Correspondent. London, March 9. New Zealanders probably believe themselves to be utterly independent of the climatic conditions prevailing in the Old Country, and are indifferent as to the state of the weather here, providing they do not contemplate a holiday at Home. You are labouring under a delusion in this respect. I can assure you on the authority of no less a person than MrH. Kains Jackson, the wellknown (to some people) expert on matters agricultural. Let me prove the case. The frozen meat industry is acknowledged to be a considerable portion of the backbone of the Colony. Statistics prove that we eat 161,000 tons less meat in 1893 than in the preceding year, and Mr Jackson says this was because “ 200 days of hot weather took away one ounce per diem of the normal appetite of 38 millions of flesh-eating people/* Great is the power of the multiplication table. Reducing the 161,000 tons into sheep at 70lb per carcase, we find that it means ab0ut6,150,000 sheep! Surely these figures will convince the most sceptical New Zealander of the important bearing the atmospheric conditions of the Old Country have upon the question of New Zealand’s prosperity. Of course Mr Jackson baa omitted to take into consideration either the noticeable poverty of the country last year or that great and growing influence vegetarianism. That this latter consideration should not be despised shows by the following u ad/* in an Essex paper: 4< Great opportunity 30 ewes (3yrs), 70 lambs (lyr). These sheep will be sold at a great sacrifice to any purchaser who will guarantee that they shall be kept for grazing, wool, &c., and shall not be sold to the butcher. Any bond fide offer will be considered/*