FROZEN MEAT IN LONDON.

Otago Witness, Issue 1602, 5 August 1882, Page 8

FROZEN MEAT IN LONDON.

(European Mail.)

Since our last there has been a considerable amount of correspondence in The Times on, the subject of frozen meat. "G.A.H." started the controversy by pointing out that the future value of land in England could not be seriously affected by any importations, no matter how large, of frozen meat from abroad. The great increase in the population at Homo must necessarily increase the price of land, irrespective of its value for farming and grazing. The next day'a letter appeared from the Duke of St. Albans, who thought that the fact of 5000 incases of sheep having been successfully im"

ported from New Zealand might well make agricultural hopes sink as far below zero as the temperature nccossary to bring the carcases over ; but his Grace pointed out that there were crumbs of comfort left to the British farmer. Land being almost valueless in New Zealand, the cost of bringing this mutton to market must, he said, be calculated against the rent and rates of land which would produce an equal quantity in this country, and on the difference would depend the success or failure of this new departure in meat supply. If the trade was successfully developed, its immediate effect would be to raise the value of meat in New Zealand, and the British agriculturist might reckon as a certainty that competition would not be carried on under the same advantageous circumstances to the importers as at present. What the farmor had really to fear was that English and frozen meat would be sold promiscuously, that the New Zealand article would be passed off for and at English prices, while the butcher would knock down the value of our sheep on the excuse of this new supply. We may turn this argument round the other way, and point out to his Grace that what the" New Zealand and Australian farmers have to fear is that some of the worthless English and Continental sheep brought to market may be sold as the Colonial article, and thus create a prejudice against frozen meat which it would be impossible to withstand. Sir Francis Dillon Bell replied to the Duke of St. Albans' letter. He thought it was the greatest mistake to suppose that the prospect of a supply of frozen meat must be looked at with alarm by the English landowner or farmor. The simple fact was that Great Britain wanted a meat supply of 000,000 tons every year. As she produced less than 801b, and consumed 1201b, manifestly the odd 401b must come from somewhere, and he thought it was better that England should look to her colonies rather than be dependent on foreign nations. Mr 1). Tallerman also replied at some length to the Duke of St. Albans' letter. He thought that the importation of frozen meat was one of the best things that could have happened for all identified with the land, inasmuch as it must lead to the prompt introduction of available improvements in the disorganised, extravagant, and wasteful system by which Homegrown meat was at present distributed. He pointed out that the system of slaughtering animals in abattoirs, with refrigerating chambers attached, would enable the whole of the offal to be utilised while fresh, and the result would be an increased realisation of £3 to £4 sterling. There next followed a letter from " A London Butcher," who poured out the most bitter contempt on the enterprise. He re- t ferred to what had been written on the sub- '■ ject as " stupid twaddle," and said that the remark of the Agent -general of New Zealand that " no better meat was to be seen in the London market" was absolutely untrue. " When it first comes into the market," he says, " it looks bright and clean, but is as hard as a lump of stone ; when it thaws, it looks as if it had been drawn through a horse-pond. The London butcher declared that nobody saw anything of this frozen meat, because it was only sold to the poor at a few pence per lb., just as the oit'al of the English meat was sold to the poor at reduced prices. Referring to Mr Tallerman's suggestion, he says : "The person that writes on cold storage is only a harper on a bankrupt idea that has been proved by its failuro to be impossible to be carried out ; and again, his assertion of a loss of £3 to £4 on the killing of every bullock on its offal betrays his utter ignorance of the whole subject.'" It was not to be supposed for one moment that the acrid letter of "A London Butcher " would be allowed to go unanswered, and next day " An Importer" and a correspondent signing himself " H. P. J." both replied to it. The latter strenuously denied that the frozsn meat went the same way as the offal, and the former said that so long as the London butchers chose to give the colonists sid to C^d per lb for what some of their class termed offal, they would be well pleased. "An Importer" anticipates to get oven better prices for the frozen meat, and adds: "We have made arrangements for live largo steamers to be built specially for this particular trade at ' a cost of over £120,000." "H. P. J." also makes the welcome announcement that "arrangements have been made for tho direct disposal of future shipments," This ia what is absolutely essential if the consumer is to derive any advantage from the importations, but we aro inclined to think that bo long as tho importers can get from Cd to 7d per lb for tho carcase they will not trouble themselves to send the meat into consumption direct. From the foregoing it will bo seen that the success of the importation of the 5000 carcases by the Dunedin has aroused considerable interest on this side in what is not inaptly termed " the frozen flock," and there can be no doubt that the publicity given to the matter will greatly help forward the enterprise upon which j so many colonists have embarked. No more gratifying news will have reached New Zealand since outlast than the fact that the average price paid for the last 2500 carcases put upon the market was G.\d per lb, and sevoral of the heavy weights brought as much as 7d, tho highest price ever paid for frozen moat. The whole of the shipment has now been entirely disposed of —tho last 500 carcases having been placed on tho market on Saturday morning, 10th Juno,— and we understand that arrangements are being made to have regular shipments from New Zealand to London.

It will interest our readers to know that the estancicros of tho River Plato have woke up to the importance of the fresh preserved meat trade, and that they mean to run the Australian and Now Zealand squatters very haid in the London market for first place. _ The company which has just been formed in London, with a capital of £200,000, in shares of £10 each, promises to do great things with Haslam's patent refrigerators, which have already boon tested, and satisfactorily, on board ship and in the Australian Colonies. There is a strong directorate. It is inten led that for the present the operations of the company shall be restricted to sheep, as they appear to offer a more certain prospect of satisfactory results.

Mr E. JW. Trent, of London, writes as follows to tho Lyttelton Times :—

I anxiously waited for news of the arrival of the ship Dunedin into safe port, and, I may also mention, I have made the acquaintance of one of the largest butchers in the borough of Hackney, Mr C. J. Geary, to whom I am indebted for a large amount of useful information. This gentleman not only kills a large quantity of sheep and cattle on his own premises, but is also a considerable buyer at the Metropolitan dead-meat market. As '^oon as the ship was safely docked I put myself in communication with Mr Geary, and requested him to purchase some of the mutton in order that I might try it and introduce it to my friends. Day after day for a whole week I visited his shop in the hope of being able to obtain a supply, but his invaiiable reply was that the sheep were all too large and heavy for his trado, and he could not fcouoh them. "Why," he said on one occasion, "some of those sheep weigh 1231b)

I never saw such sheep in my life.'' But when I told him I had seen sheep killed in New Zealand 2001b weight, ho thought 1 was romancing. At last he informed mo he had bought the smallest sheep he could find in the market, weighing 751b, and showed me certain joints that were left of it. The meat appeared much the same as other mutton, except that the outside was rather damp, and the lean, when cut, was rather darker in colour than fresh-killed meat. This meat was thawed out on Friday, and cooked on Sunday. The joint I was fortunate enough to receive— a good large shoulder— we hung up all night in a cool and airy larder, and when taken out to be cooked nex^ morning was nearly as dry and firm as English-killed mutton. When cooked and placed upon the table, it was plump, juicy, and. full of excellent gravy, was as tender as a chicken, haviug all the full flavour good mutton should havo, and without prejudice I may say it was the best mutton I have eaten since I have been in England." Mr Barton, a student of St. John's College, Cambridge, writes to the Government a long letter on New Zealand frozen meat, in which he says : "On hearing of the arrival of the shipment in London, I immediately wrote for a carcase to be forwarded to me at Cambridge. On its arrival I proceeded, under the guidance of the head cook of St. John's Colloge, to inspect it. He declared it to be in splendid order. On tho following day part was cooked ; a joint was sent to tho Fellows of tho College, who declared the quality of the meat superior to any which was supplied here by tho College butcher— in short, everyone who tasted the meat pronounced it not only equal to, but far sweeter and better than ordinary English mutton."