BRITISH AND FOREIGN MEAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1933, 7 December 1888, Page 16

BRITISH AND FOREIGN MEAT.

A CHAT WITH A SMITHFIELD

SALESMAN.

(From a Correspondent of the St. James' Gazette.) Business is not done so easily at the Central Meat Market as it used to be. la the good old times the retail butchers from all parts of the metropolis came swarming there at half-past 3 in the morning, and by noon the market was practically empty of the carcasses, both of lire oxen and dead beasts. The modern « purveyor " takes life more leisurely. He has an invincible objection to getting up early, and, besides, the conditions of the trade have so altered that there really is no necessity for his going to Bmithfield in the small hourj. Formerly he had to be there and back again in time to supply the matutinal chop to 6uch of his customers as fancied one, and the morning purchases had to be nicely adjusted to the probable demand for the day. Now, however, when almost every butcher has an ice box, or some other means of keeping his meat, it matters very little what time of the day he pays his visit to the wholesale market. He is able to attend to his early customers and set his shop in order ; then, after a bit of lunch, he lights a cigar, mounts hJB trap, and trots off with the air ot' a man who is paying strict attention to his business, and merits a continuance of your esteemed favours. The consequence of this change is that, happening to visit Smithfield Market lately, I found the salesmen sufficiently at leisure to be beguiled into a chat, and from one of them I got some information which was not ,only interesting b,ut startling. As the St. James' Gazette has been paying some attention to the frozen meat question, perhaps its readers would like to know what he said. "Yes," he observed, "business is pretty fair — pretty fair. But it is too much spread over the day. It used to be all over long before now, but the butchers have altered their way of dealing so that the trade isn't a bit the same. It should be a boon to them, as well as to us, if the market were compulsorily closed at 2, and say 5 I o'clock on Saturdays. It would be a boon to us, because we should do just the same amount of business in far less time ; and it would be a boon to the retailers because it would put an end to the large amount of retailing which goes on here late in the evening, and compel the people who buy, their meat in that way to go to the shops." "What is the condition of the meat trade generally ?" "Well, pretty bad, I should say. You see, there is more competition than there used to be ; and unless a butcher makes large profits he does not seem to be able to get on. As a rule butchers are a free living, thriftless lot. If they make £10 or £12 one week, they go and spend it the next. Most of them do a bit of betting, and they all keep a fast trotting pony, which trots away with a good deal of their money. That is the reason why so many of them get into the Bankruptcy Court. Of course this makes it worse for the man who tries to keep straight— bo muoh so that I don't believe any butcher could get along at all nowadays if it were not for the little 1 pull 'he gets with the foreign meat." " What do you mean by that ? Do you mean that he sells foreign meat as English or Scotch?" "Certainly. I should say that throughout the West End of London at least six butchers out of ten 'work in' 'various quantities of foreign with their English meat — Aoaericankilled beef, Dutch mutton, and frozen beef and mutten from New Zealand, Australia, and other places. There are about 30,000 carcasses of frozen mutton sold in this market weekly. The importers send them here, and they get distributed among all the salesmen, who sell them to the retailer's. I can assure you that a large proportion of this meat is taken away from here by men who will swear till they are black in the face that they have never had an ounce of frozen mutton in their shops in their lives.". At this moment a man stepped up to my friend and asked what he would take for a certain "side" of beef. In a few seconds a bargain was struck, and the meat was marked with a tiny skewer to indicate that it was sold. " There you are," said the salesman ; " that is a ' side ' of American-killed beef, and i€ is to go to

so-and-so " (naming » high-class butcher in one of the most fashionable parts of London). " Will he sell it as English ?" "Of course he will. There's nothing to prevent him. He'll *work it in.' with the rest of his meat. For , three days, say, a certain customer will get a prime Scotch joint; then on tha fourth day he gets a cut of American, and either he will not notice it at all, or, if he does, will only remark that 'the meat doesn't seem so good as usual,' and then for^efe all about it. In the extreme case of a complaint being made to the butcher, the result is to secure a spleHdid piece on the following day, which restores the butoher 'to favour; and so the thing goes on year after year. With regard to frozen mutton the case is morp difficult. When , this" meat has been thawed out it is apt to ' run,' and look wet and sloppy* if kept for any length of time. The butcher does his best with it by putting it in his refrigerator, by dusting it over with flour, or by wrapping it round with a cloth; but, as a rule, he gets rid of ft as soon as possible." •'Etow about the proportion between the quantity of home and foreign meat respectively which passes through this market and the difference in price?" , 11 As nearly as I can put it, there are three* fourths home-grown and one-fourth foreign. The difference in price varies. In .mutton it would be as much as 30 per cent, sometimes ; but not so much in beef. To-day the average of American beef is' 4§d per lb, while home-grown issJdi Certainly the difference is sufficient to make it well worth the butcher's while to pass off the one for the other if he can." " But surely a fraud of that kind ought not to be allowed ; if ought to be exposed. Every butcher who practices it should have his name published as that of a common swindler." "If you did that you would ruin half the butchers in London. They most do it— they could not live if they did not. ., There is not enough English and Scotch meat' to supply the demand, and the competition for it is so keen among the butchers that they really make no profit out of the sale of it to the public. Consequently they are compelled to make use of the foreign mea* and yet to conceal the fact from their customers." M But my view is that if the foreign meat were openly and honestly sold as such, at a fair profit, there would be an increased demand for it, as flesh food would then bo brought within the reach of many who cannot afford it at present ; while, concurrently, there would be an equal demand and a higher price for home-grown meat, which would stimulate production, and so benefit the British farmer. The principle upon which the butcher now acts seems to me an titter fallacy. He meets an excessive demand for a superior article by palming off an inferior article when he ought to let this excessive demand operate in the natural way and stimulate the supply." "Very likely; but he does not see the matter in that light, and I am afraid he never will."