THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1584, 1 April 1882, Page 5

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

It is very much to be regretted jthai One shipment of frozen meat and! dairy pro- | duce after another from thesb' Colonies 'should be 'thrown upon' the : '.'LWndon market hi a more or less unsaleable! condition. "We had really though fc^th&t by this time the new trade, of which we were all ao hopeful, would have been 'carried on without the "slightest rUk,of l l4i^|rom bungling in the process of freezing.,.'' But [the difficulties, are not yet, .thoroughly mastered, although it must >be > said that the 1 chief difficulty- seems to consist in finding men , who. will scientiously carry, out the jristijuctions of the promoters. A couple of d'ayst ago, for instance, it was stated in> a London telegram that the meat sent Home.'by the Protos had suffered . through a'tem'^orary stoppage of !tfte refrigerating 'machjne on the voyage ;. but it now turns outsat the damage was not done on the voyafge at all, but at Melbourne, before the'fihif) left the port . Both the meat' and buttorwere shipped in bad condition. . Sucjl 'careless blundering is hardly conceivable ; but there is no denying the faots;; A large shipment of meat and butter is actually sent away from Melbourne, in' such a condition as could only bring disgrace on the Colony, and tend to ruin , the trade in the very outset. If we mistake* not, this is not by any means the 1 first' time that the mischief has been done before the vesßel started. Now carelessness of this Bort is surely quite preventable} and it is, as we have just said, difficult to understand how it should ever have oc« curred. There is every reason, why the utmost vigilance should be exercised in shipping meat for the Home, market. In the first place, frozen meat,' say [what people will, is not quite < equal to fresh meat. In the second place, the prejudices of the English people %.,very strong in all matters relating to^o'ojg, any | attempted innovation in diet being as much suspected and opposed 1 - as » ah attempted innovation in religion!- The^ery poorest of the poor would not eatj. the dried beef that was imported some, years ago from South America, and fte t may take it for granted that the samefclass will have to be educated up to the eating even of our Australian and New Zealand mutton, if they know it to be such. In the third place, we may be quite sure that the Americans will not be foolish enough to send unpalatable stuff to the English market, and it is with the Americans that we have to compete. For, the3e reasons it is of the utmost importance that our new trade should be conducted with 1 the greatest skill and care. An accident 1 now and again to the refrigerating machinery on the voyage ia perhaps unavoidable, but there ought to be no difficulty in shipping good meat, good butter, and good cheese. Indeed, if butter and cheese were properly made and', properly packed they could be sent Home* without the least risk in specially-fitted sailing ships, like the Dunedin " andi Mataura, under the refrigerating' chamber, and it ought to be remembered i that no amount of refrigerating will turn bad butter or cheese to good. But the .colonists have still a great deal to learn ia the matter of handling their produce* '