AUSTRALIAN LIVE CATTLE SHIPMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1184, 9 November 1894, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN LIVE CATTLE SHIPMENT.

CAN IT PAY ? From Our Special Correspondent. London, September 21.

On Wednesday last the steamship Maori King brought from Sydney a shipment of live cattle—an experiment, the credit of which belongs to Messrs Mel I wraith, McEachern and Co. Twenty beasts were put on board at Sydney, and of these nineteen were lan led alive at Deptford, one poor beast having succumbed to injuries received during a storm encountered a few days distant from New Zealand. So far as the mere question of carriage is concerned the shipment was an unqualified success. Five of the beasts shipped were in store condition, the experimenters being under the impression that it would be possible to have the animals pastured a few weeks at this end to get up their condition. But our Board of Agriculture refused to allow this.course to be pursued, basing their objection upon an Order-in-Council dated August 13th last, which maintained the restrictions on the importation of Canadian cattle, namely, their slaughter at the first port of Janding. Hence several of the beasts per Maori King will fail to realize the figures they would have reached had thty been given a week or so on good grass During the voyage the cattle were fed upon pressed fodder and bran. Upon this diet the cattle, which were in good condition when put on board, had done remarkably well, but the store beasts when I saw them last week were miserably poor. One of the animals when landing met with an accident and was slaughtered straight away at Deptford. This beast was put on the market at Smithfield on Friday and sold at 5d a pound all over. From this result, the slaughtered animal being one of the best conditioned, some approximate figures may be worked'out to show thechances of this live cattle trade being carried on at a profit. The animal weighed 80 stone, but cattle for the London market should go. nearer 100 stone. Suppose we take the cost of such an animal in Sydney at L 6 10s, or, to be on the safe side, L 7. We get at the cost of the beast landed at Smithfield thus :

£lB 0 0 Now suppose we take a hundred-stone fat beast at 4d to 5d a pound all over. We find that this represents LIS 15s nearly, or say, with what hide and offal will fetch, LI 7 only. I see, however, that the British Australasian puts the cost of a fat bullock at Newcastle at L 5, but this is for eighty stone animals such as were shipped by the Maori King. His calculations give a deficit on each animal sold at 5d per lb and LI 10s for hide, and offal. The question of first cost has of course a large bearing on the profit and loss account, but such cattle as will give satisfaction on the English market can hardly be put on board at any colonial port at less than L 5 10s per head, unless it be in Queensland'* Freight, which absorbs so large a sum now, can unquestionably be reduced very considerably if the trade grows to any dimensions, and insurance will, of course, greatly depend upon the percentage of

casualties occuring whilst experiments are being carried on. Fodder, of course, must cost more also during the first shipments than it will should the trade eventually devolve into a " going concern." Tending I have put at 5s per head, which I think is quite low enousrh. Ido not think that it would be wise to reckon upon more than 5d a pound at Smithfield for even prime cattle, though it is quite possible that many animals will do better than this. On the other hand, once it is proved that cattle can be sent alive to England with profit to exporters, the trade will speedily grow to large proportions and selling rates will come down a little. The Times' correspondent does not believe our farmers have anything to fear from Australian competition in the live cattle trade, but with that I cannot quite agree, since the main drawback to the success of Antipodean exporters is the expense of carriage, and this can be very greatly reduced in my opinion. It will, of course, require a good deal of experiment to find the minimum cost at which cattle can be carried and kept in condition 'twixt Australia and England, but I am quite prepared to see figures of this sort in the balance-sheet of experimenters before very long.

Such a result can only be obtained, of course, by chartering,vessels capable of carrying from 500 to 800 head of cattle.

There is, of course, the question whether live cattle will in any case pay better than chilled beef or thawed frozen beef. Messrs Nelson are now obtaining for thawed hindquarters from 2s 8i to 2s lOd per stone, which is approximately a lb better than the rate frozen beef has been in the habit of achieving. /

£ s. d. Cost of beast in Sydney 7 0 0 Freight 6 0 0 Fodder consumed ... ... 1 10 0 ,, carriage of ... 1 0 0 Insurance ... 1 5 0 Tending on voyage ... 5 0 Landing, slaughtering, commission, &c. 1 0 0

Cost of 90st bullock ... Freight Fodder and carriage Insurance, tending, &c. £ 8. ... 5 10 ... 3 10 ... 2 0 ... 1 10 d. 0 0 0 0 Sold at Smithfield at 4£d Hide and offal ... Credit balance £12 10 0 ... 13 10 ... 1 0 0 0 £14. 10 12 10 0 0 12 0 0