HOME MARKET QUOTATIONS FOR CANTERBURY MUTTON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1290, 19 November 1896, Page 19

HOME MARKET QUOTATIONS FOR CANTERBURY MUTTON.

The New Zealand Produce Stores Company, 95, Piccadilly, Manchester, Bth October, 1896. TO THE EDITOR.

Dear Sir, —I read in the notice of the meeting of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company that the chairman is reported, in answer to a question with regard to the high prices quoted for Canterbury mutton at Home, to have said : —“ It seems to be not so much the mutton that goes from Canterbury that commands a high price, but any mutton that is of the same quality, whether from Dunedin or Southland, is, I understand, now termed Canterbury mutton. If our mutton is equal to the Canterbury mutton, I believe it goes under the class of Canterbury mutton at Home. It is simply looked upon as firstclass mutton, whether it goes from Dunedin or Southland.”

As I feel certain that this is a subject that greatly interests the majority of your readers, I need hardly apologise for craving space in your valuable paper for a few remarks regarding it. Any information that I can impart on matters of interest to them is freely given, and I am convinced will be as freely read by them. The term “ Canterbury mutton” certainly is the name by which the finest New Zealand mutton is known.

But there is a very wide difference between the application of this term in the wholesale and retail markets.

In the wholesale market, such as Smithfield, “ Canterbury mutton ” means only sheep sent Home from Canterbury Province, New Zealand, being wrapped in bags having the Canterbury brand printed on them, and with the Canterbury tag attached. These sheep are always sold as “ Canterburys,” and command tho top price. Sheep from other parts of the Colony are sold, according to the districts they come lroin, as “ Southlands,” “ Dunedins,” “ Wellingtons ” or “ Napiers,” and fetch prices varying according to tho favour in which their respective brands are held. When a large line of sheep is bought, the purchaser mest probably does not see a sample. He buys by brand. And it would greatly surprise many New Zealand farmers, who know, of courso, intimately the breeding and quality of the sheep sent Home from the various districts, to find how little real knowledge of the quality of the frozen mutton in the carcase the majority of the buyers in this country have. Hang out 100 sheep bearing the Canterbury label and 100 bearing any other label, and although they may have all come from the same parcel, the “ Canterburys ” will soil readily at more money. Now this may seem nonsense to many of your readers, but it is true, and if anyone doubts my assertion let him send a line of sheep Home for sale on the wholesale market, freezing half at, say, Islington, and the ether half at any other factory in another province, and I feel satisfied one trial will be sufficient to convince him that what I state is true. That this ignorance on the part of Home

buyers, such as retail butchers, affords room for dealers here perpetrating frauds upon them, by buying sheep of several of the cheaper grades, re-covering them with Canterbury bags, attaching Canterbury tags, and re-selling these as “ Canterbury” at higher prices I can assert. That it is piossible your readers must allow, and that it has been done I know. Who can tell the difference in the sheep when they are all unlabelled ? Are there not thousands of sheep bred and possibly fed in Southland and Otago taken every year to Canterbury, where they are fattened, slaughtered and frozen —coming Home as “ Canterburys ?” Personally, I cannot see the difference between Canterburys, Dunedins or Southlands, if equally well graded. I am pleased to notice that more attention is now being paid to grading than formerly by all the refrigerating companies, and that grading for quality as well as for weight is becoming general. Too much care cannot be taken regarding this, as a few wrongly graded sheep getting into a parcel naturally makes a purchaser dubious of the brand in future. The wholesale frozen mutton market is like the wholesale market for many other commodities —the brand is what largely sells the article. I have seen butchers buying lambs in the market here during this past season that were really secondary, and giving a higher price for them than for adjoining ones of superior quality, merely because they bore a brand they knew by repute. In the retail trade, however, the case is entirely different. Here it is immaterial what the brand may be, so long as the article supplied to the consumers is of prime quality. They do not care where it may have been bred or fed, so long as the chop for breakfast is as good as an English one, or the leg of mutton when on the dinner table is tender and juicy. Consumers know the term “ Canterbury ” only as meaning the finest quality or New Zealand mutton. In fact so generally is this recognised that butchers unblushiugly tak« advantage of it, and advertise all frozen mutton as “ Prime Canterbury,” and so completely prostitute the name. River Plate and Australian merino mutton and other mutton of very inferior quality is offered openly as “ Canterbury.” I enclose a handbill now being circulated by a butcher in one of the poor districts in Manchester, advertising that he sells “Canterbury” mutton —legs, 4d and 4-Id ; shoulders, 3.\d and 4d, do., when at the same time the wholesale market price for “ Canterbury ” mutton is 3£d to Id per lb in London. Then all over the district there are butchers calling themselves “ The Canterbury Meat Co./’ “The Eclipse Meat C 0.,” “The Hew Zealand Meat C 0.,” dc., selling the most inferior mutton they can get at low prices in the poor localities.

Poor Hew Zealand ! Her own mutton is too good to sell as the genuine article, and is sold as English, whilst she lends her name to further the sale of all the inferior stuff that is sent to the Home market in competition with her. If this is not true, why do so many butchers uso this name and advertise in the manner I mention?

Ho wonder I find prejudice against Hew Zealand mutton strong and hard to break down, and that i advocate Hew Zealand producers making a combined effort to thoroughly push the introduction of the genuine article to the consumers in this country.

j_ remain, Yours faithfully, H. G. Cameron, Manager the Hew Zealand Produce Stores Co., 95, Piccadilly, Manchester.