The Opunake Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1895. BEEF.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 101, 21 June 1895, Page 2

The Opunake Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1895. BEEF.

—♦— The excitement of the hour amongst the farming community is the shipment of chilled beef by the Gothic. In dealing with the subject the New Zealand Times says :—There is in that shipment of chilled meat the nucleus of a revolution which may reach completeness in the export meat trade of this colony in a few months. The meat is realising a substantial increase of price, as a matter of course. It is not a question cf the prandial oratory of enthusiastic gentlemen invited to lunch, and encouraged by champagne to say what they have long been wishing to be enabled by facts to say. Of that we have had enough and to spare in the history of the meat trade. The leading feature of that phase of the trade was the inverse ratio of the quality of the export to encomiums passed upon it by disinterested parties. The lower the quality, the higher the praise. That we discovered when we were sending Home meat one degree removed from boiled rags; and we have been familiar with it ever since. The enthusiast and the careful official to check him were, of course, not absent from the opening of the Gothic’s chamber. But the quality of the meat does not depend on their testimony. It has been demonstrated in the open market, in which it commands freely a substantial advance on the frozen article. If the shipment of chilled meat had consisted entirely of 8001 b bullocks, they would have averaged in London a shade over £lB a head. In that case the extra price would have added not far from £6 per head to the value of every 8001 b beast in New Zealand over and above the present freezing value. That, in view of the selection of the meat sent, is not exactly what can be said to have happened. The shipment consisted of hind-quarters, we must remember. But that an appreciably large increase has been given to the value of every head of cattle in the colony is apparent to the least thinking capacity. This the stockowners have, been quick to perceive, and prices have hardened in consequence already, and quotations are rising. Much has to be learnt as yet about details. What is the extra freight likely to be for the chilled meat, which takes up more room in the ships ? When it comes to chilling mutton will Die ships in the trade have space sufficient for the demand for carriage ? These questions will be asked presently, and will press hard for answer. Their significance lies in the contrast between the brilliant success of the American chilled beef and the comparative failure of the frozen meat from Australasia. While our carcases of mutton lie unasked for in the cold stores, waiting to be sold at prices that leave the owner with little more than the skin for his sole profit, the American chilled meat goes into consumption as fast as it arrives. Last year the quantity ran into millions of sterling value, but not a pound had to be stored, and the prices were eminently satisfactory. The Gothic’s meat arriving in dock goes into consumption at once on the same terms at a trifle less money. There is no apology for a glutted market, no protest that an army of middlemen is seeking to rob us by getting our meat for nothing to sell it at the English and Scotch rales. Without a word, or a scintilla of fuss of any kind, the meat commands a high price, from 2d to 3d above that

ruling for our frozen mutton. The idea among experts, who have always been aware of the success with which the chilled meat is carried from American ports, was that the increased distance made it impossible to carry chilled meat from the colonies successfully. There is really no reason why it should be impossible, but the failure of shipment from Australia last year was not encouraging. The Gothic experiment has, however, settled the question of possibility beyond doubt. The success of that experiment marks the beginning of a new epoch, and is quite as important as the arrival of the first cargo of frozen mutton safe and sound in London, which gave the impetus to to the trade which has carried it to the present day. It will give the meat trade the new life which it wants so urgently. Have we at last got the secret of the low prices which threaten to paralyse the meat'export industry ? It is not that there is a glut, because the Home article keeps up its price. When Mr Nelson invented a thawing process, it was a matter of notoriety that the ordinary thawing spqiled the appearance of the meat. In was good, wholesome, tender, jucy, but it did not look well. Hence the importance of a superior method of thawing. But here we have a method of preserving which requiring rio thawing turns the meatout for the buyer in the same condition precisely as the fresh killed article. The difficulty of the appearance is completely surmounted. The meat will in the future be as good as ever, and will look as it ought to look. Then we may be sure that it will sell as it ought to sell. The trade requires pulling together by wholesale reform. The work will be greatly faciliated by the assured attractiveness of the article to be disposed of.